Inferno
by Eugenicmutagenesis
Summary: The teens have to face a new and more...sinister villain. Their new recruit Claudine may just be the girl to help except that the baddie happens to be her dad, but that's high school. Am I right? I'll be sure to add in all that teen angst, identity crisis and of course super powered fighting that one expects from a fan fiction. (Loosely based on the Inferno storyline).
1. Chapter 1

1859, London England

Rebecca screamed in agony all through the night, her midwife and house servant, Elizabeth the only one to aid her in the delivery of their second child. She recalled the mourning of her new infant son's death as she went through the hours of labor. At the time, her husband was ever un-present. She had become afraid for him since the death of their son. He had become…obsessed by his studies. He had hardly been there for her pregnancy with their second child.

The child was finally delivered in the early hours of the morning. Her husband still wasn't back yet. The birth was a success, the baby girl was quite healthy, something that she had not expected with her failing health towards the end of the pregnancy. When the infant came out, she didn't cry, but rather looked around with curiosity at the new world that she had come into. It was the most peculiar thing.

"She's beautiful," crooned Elizabeth over the child, "looks just like you, madam."

"Yes, she is," she said, holding the bundle in her arms and rocking it back and forth. After a few hours, the babe had fallen back to sleep. Elizabeth insisted to take the baby for a while to allow Rebecca sleep, but soon after, she was awoken again by the sound of the door creaking open in the front room. It must be her husband, "Nathaniel?" she called from her bed, "Is that you?"

The footsteps neared the room without an answer. She hardly made out his face from the faint gas lamp that lit the room. What was he carrying?

"I've found the cure!" he exclaimed to her. His smile seemed like a chasm in the flickering light, "You have to see Rebecca, it may be too late for our son, but I've found it!"

She didn't know what he was talking about, and that's when she took a closer look at the bundle.

Elizabeth figured that she may as well check on her mistress, leaving the child in her cradle. She turned the corner of the hallway to enter the woman's room to find that the door was already open. That was strange, seeing as she had remembered closing the door before. Nevertheless, she tiptoed cautiously, not wanting to wake the presumably sleeping woman. Her husband was now at her side, he must have come home earlier. He hadn't seen Elizabeth walk in. The one word that she heard Rebecca utter to him was "sinister' and then she was gone. The man let out a yell of agony.

That was the night when Elizabeth ran away with the child and saved her from the man who had murdered her mother. That man was her father. He was also to become one of the most feared beings in the world.

He knew that Rachel wouldn't have understood. She never did appreciate his work, but how could he have known that she would die of a heart attack? He only did what was logical, that is to find a cure for the chromosomal abnormalities of his offspring and how could he have done that without the body? It was emptied of conscious mind anyhow, only to be wasted as fertilizer in the ground. Oh Rachel, how could she be so ignorant? Would anyone understand the scientific weight in the world of genetic manipulation?

Elizabeth had taken the child into her care and resumed her life in the poor little cottage that she called home. It was no place for a child, but neither was her other option. That is why she had named her Mercy. The child was not easy to rear, as an infant would never sleep, but always cry all through the night, but when she began to talk her voice was as clear as the night she was born that Elizabeth soon forgot her early troubles with Mercy. They came to think of each other as family.

Mercy loved Elizabeth like a mother, even though she had been told that her mother and father died soon after her birth. She always imagined that they loved her a lot though-that they all loved each other. She had a photograph of her mother that she received for her sixth birthday, but never her father. She looked like her mother, the same brown hair and smile that was only revealed by those who were very well trusted.

That winter she fell ill. Even she knew that something was very wrong with her. Some nights she heard Elizabeth cry and she cried too, because she didn't know. One day, there came a knock at their door. This was strange because they hardly ever got knocks on their very humble door. It was a rather well fed man wearing a well to do sort of suit. He was even adorned in a top hat. He had that kind of stubborn and superior air about him. Mercy didn't like him from the beginning, but anyhow Elizabeth kindly took his overcoat and invited him inside. Through the medium of eavesdropping and filling in the unheard gaps she gathered that the man's name was Patrick Clemens and he was of the very prestigious Hellfire Club. Through a series of complicated connections, they had somehow learned of her chronic illness and would like very much to fund a life-saving operation. It was something like cryogenic freezing or something like that. She didn't really get the rest because of the relentless sobs of joy from Elizabeth. She hoped that they were sobs of joy.

The next morning Elizabeth more or less told her that there was a very nice gentleman willing to pay for her operation, but that she would have to go to New York City.

"Must I go?" the little girl pleaded with tears in her eyes, "Are you at least coming with me?"

"I'm afraid that there is only room for you to go dear," said Elizabeth with tears in her eyes, "if all is to go as planned this will be my last time seeing you." The two embraced and cried for a while. Elizabeth had been more of a mother to her than anyone else ever had been.

"I don't want to leave you."

"You must. Go and pack now," forced out Elizabeth.

"I…can't."

"You must," said Elizabeth forcefully, but then regretted it, seeing the tears in the child's big eyes, "I love you"

Mercy trudged upstairs, very confused why Elizabeth was making her leave. Would this strange man really make her better? She lay on her bed and pretended to fall asleep as Elizabeth soothed her and sang. Eventually she actually did fall asleep.

"Time to wake up, darling," said Elizabeth gently to the sleeping child. Mercy wasn't very fond of being awoken, especially since she could hardly ever fall asleep, but knowing this was her morning of departure she slid out from under the covers and got dressed right away. Then, she was promptly fed and whisked out to the horse and carriage that awaited her.

"Don't forget me," whispered Elizabeth, stroking her hair and kissing her on the cheek.

"Never," she promised and was helped up into the seat by an elegantly clad servant. Off she went into this new world alone.


	2. Chapter 2

_Some time later_

She eventually was awoken from her long, deep sleep, but it was not by a pleasant soft voice of Elizabeth. She first stirred because of the voices, for she had not heard a human voice in over a hundred years. It did not feel like any time passed in her personal Pandora's Box though, not like she had feared. It was more like a long slumber or a gap in existence. One of the sounds she first heard was a yell that came from far across the room, "The transfusion is not finished, we must keep her here!" and then there was a loud crash and everything went silent for a moment. A light voice drifted from in front of her, but she couldn't find the strength to open her eyelids, "I knew you would come for the girl someday, Sinister. Why now?"

A deep growling voice came from above her from the man that was carrying her from her icy chamber, "Let's just say I found my cure, and much, much more and with Tony Stark parading around as Iron Man, the building was quite easy to infiltrate."

She heard the two doors open and then the cold New York air on her face, blowing her strands of hair this way and that. It was cold, and all she had on was a thin hospital gown. She was helpless in this man's arms. She finally mustered up all of her remaining strength and spoke three words; who are you? In the darkness of closed eyes his voice came clearly, "why, child I am Mister Sinister. My mortal name was Nathaniel Essex, but you can call me father. Now, sleep daughter, sleep." She felt the sharp pinch of a needle and She once again went out cold, but before falling unconscious, she caught a glimpse of the man called Sinister; his skin was stark white, he had a heavy brow, black hair, and in the center of his forehead above his glowing red eyes there was an equally red diamond_. No, no he cannot be my father! He is lying! My father died with my mother! _

He had finally gotten the child. He smiled at his effortless victory. One wave of his hand and he could stop a human army. He was ready to make more of his creations, and with his biological offspring he could perhaps perfect the process that Apocalypse had performed all those years ago on him. Maybe the Essex bloodline had something…unique in their resilience to the operation. So many had died on his operating table before. He grinned at the thought of the perfect species to rule the Earth. That fool Magneto was so ignorant and irrational, driven by emotion. They arrived at the seemingly abandoned warehouse and slid open one of the floor panels revealing the lab. This was just a testament to how oblivious all of the creatures dubbed intelligent were. It was really a wonder that they had never looked right in front of them.

She woke up in a dark, dark place just as weak as she was before and hooked up to a menacing contraption. The monitor attached to her arm started beeping more frantically as she tried to pull away from the operating table, but it was no use, she was strapped in. The monster stepped to the side of the table, "I see that you have awoken Mercy Essex. Do not try to escape, I am much more powerful than you could ever imagine," he said as he gesture to an old chair. He made a fist and the old chair crumbled as if it had been a miniature in his hand. She gasped and screamed that he was a monster, but he only laughed and patted her on my head, "You are quite like Rebecca." She continued struggling against the bonds and much to her despair he pulled out a syringe to poison her blood. Little by little she lost all of my strength until she lay numb and helpless.

Perhaps the worst thing was that she could still see the horrors unfolding before her. To the left of the operating table was a small counter, home to a wide assortment of beakers and macabre substances which the horrid demon was crooning over. He pulled a delicate pocket watch from his white coat and grinned, taking a flask apart from the others. The thump of his footsteps came closer, and she groaned. "Hush child," he whispered, "The inferno will someday consume you and you shall be perfection." He turned to the machine to which she was held prisoner with IVs and poured the substance in. It sounded like tiny factory coming to life as he switched it on, but at first no apparent reaction happened. Then, there came cloudy liquid through the IV. The monstrous machine proceeded to infuse the ghastly liquid into her slight body as she went cold and felt her heart practically stop. The footsteps of heavy military issued boots clunked on the floor above as the yells of US soldiers filled the secret room which by no doubt was not so secret anymore. "I will see you soon my child," hissed Sinister to his captive, fleeing the scene, not being able to risk the chance of discovery, He had been laying low lately, alluding Apocalypse for a while-at least until his weapon had matured into a skilled killer.

She woke up with a start, wondering why it was so cold and them remembering the lab. She quickly scanned her surroundings, and to her relief realized she had been transported elsewhere and was no longer in the lab, but on a metal bed of some sort with some other people that appeared to be asleep. It would be rude to wake them, but the joy of life spurred her on, perhaps the events of before were only a nightmare. She walked up to one of the peculiar beds and bent down to one politely saying, "Excuse me Sir, sorry for waking you, but would you perhaps know where we are?" He did not stir, so assuming he was very worn out, went to the next bed and repeated her actions, but a bit louder, and still no answer. She ran to the other side of the room and went to a delicate looking old woman, "Excuse me!" She shouted and moved to the next bed, "Is anyone awake!" Now sobbing, she resorted to shaking the next man who slid off of the bed, she apologized profusely and asked if he was hurt, but when she went down to help him up his eyes still refused to open. She resorted to feeling for his heartbeat which was to her horror, was nonexistent. She screamed for a doctor, over and over and kept feeling for his heartbeat. "Can anybody hear me?" she cried, "Please wake up, please." No one stirred or showed any signs of life, for that matter, she proceeded to listen for a rustle of the sheets, a breath however short or a snore, but only heard the frantic beating of her own desperate heart, showing her that at least she was alive. She found herself alone in a room full of people that could no longer bring her company, a welcome party of corpses to greet her to the 21st century.

She had failed to recognize that the little frigid room was a morgue and that the bed that she had been lying on was a dissection table. The doctors that had found her after the madman fled had presumed her dead because she almost had died. _Am I dead? _

She sobbed in confusion at her strange new life for a while, but eventually picked up her head and slid back to her original spot in the corner of the room. Sobs racked her body as she realized the hopelessness of the situation. This strange new century overwhelmed her, and in no sense did she belong. Click. Her sobs were cut off by the sound of a doorknob turning. She stood up and brushed away her tears to see who it may be_. _

Meryl was on the night shift, the least desirable of them all. Autopsies were really a pain in the ass. _They die, they die; does it really matter how or why?_ Someone had heard some clattering from in the autopsy room and of course _she_ had to be the lucky one to have to go check it out. "Maybe it's a zombie," she had teased her co-workers, obviously a little freaked out. _Seriously, was everyone a complete wimp? Probably just an intern that got a little adventurous._ She couldn't help but to cringe a little though when she opened the door as fast as possible to reveal a seemingly empty room. _Ha! And to think all of this hysteria almost went to her head._

Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move though. She jumped a little as she turned on the lights. _Maybe there is someone in here._ The light washed over the operating tables and that's when she screamed…

Mercy jumped when the woman had shrieked when she had come into the room. All's she said was "Please help."

The woman calmed down, realizing it was just a little girl. "What are you doing here sweety?"

"I…don't know," she replied and sobbed into the woman's scrubs.

Meryl brought the poor girl to her office. "What's your name, honey?" she coaxed.

"Mercy Essex," she said with a sniff.

Hours later Meryl still found herself with the little girl, now sleeping, and a stack of the names of patients and doctors with the name of Essex, but all's she could find was one grouchy old woman who just hung up after she mentioned a child. Seriously though, what was she going to do?

She jumped a little when a knock came at her office door, "Come in," she called, expecting a frazzled intern. Instead, a beautiful blonde woman entered.

"Hello," said the blonde in a British accent just like the girl's, "I've heard that you have my sweet Mercy here. I am her mother and my silly husband must've just forgot all about her when he came to visit his dear mum."

"You're Mrs. Essex?" asked the young M.D. doubtfully, it just seemed too…coincidental, "Not that I don't trust you, but can I have some identification or something?"

"Why, of course!" exclaimed the woman, "I don't just expect you to hand over a child to some stranger." She pulled out a license and handed it over.

Sure enough, it said Anna Essex and her wallet had tons of pictures of her smiling next to Mercy and presumably her husband. "You've got me convinced," said Meryl after pouring over the evidence for a minute.

"Thank you so much for keeping my daughter safe," said Emma, sweeping up Mercy and leaving. It just seemed too perfect. She was about to protest without more identification, but found herself falling asleep.

She woke up the next morning to find herself inside of a small room. Where was she? It didn't look like the hospital, but it didn't look like that horrible man's lab either. She leapt to her feet and tried the door, which to her surprise wasn't locked. She heard shuffling feet and ran the other way, only to come to a dead end. She tried to hide from her captor under a table, but it was no use.

She was met with a young woman's voice, "Hello? I'm sorry that I took you into my house without permission, but I just want to help you."

She eased up a bit and asked, "Why?" The young woman helped her from out from under the table and replied, "I thought you looked lost, so I took you in."

Mercy looked at her with surprise. The woman smiled and said that there was nothing to be afraid of. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Mercy."

"I'm Anna," she said smiling again. She asked no more questions, like she understood everything and led Mercy to the kitchen. The rooms were tiny and a bit messy, but she didn't care as she looked around at all of the unfamiliar objects around her. "Excuse me for a moment," said Anna, "I need to call a friend." She held the strange ear device up to her head and talked to it like any other person. When she finished Gwyn couldn't help but to ask what it was.

"This?" she asked, holding up the small object, laughing, "You must be a long way from home."

"Thank you for the food and everything, but I should go now," Mercy said abruptly, starting to walk out.

"Mercy, wait," she motioned, "You can stay here. I can't let you go out on the streets alone."

Mercy must have looked quite bewildered, for the woman-Anna, nodded again, "You can stay here."

She told the girl to wait in the kitchen for a moment; she came back with a pile of folded clothes that were Mercy's size, "These were someone else's that I used to know," she explained, "You can have them." Mercy profusely thanked her for everything. "I'm sorry," Anna said, but I'm going to have to leave for a bit; work stuff, but make yourself at home." 'Home', what a lovely word.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey readers! In reality I'm almost done with this story, but I just started to post it so I'll post frequently. Comments are welcomed and sincerely appreciated. Thank you.

Chapter 3

_10 Years Later_

"Hey birthday girl!" exclaimed Anna, arms outstretched for a hug immediately after she came through the door, "What have you been up to today?"

"Oh, nothing, just went over to Gabby's."

It was her birthday, but it didn't really feel like it. Besides, it wasn't her actual 16th birthday. She still had nightmares sometimes about the man and the lab, but that was all behind her now. She liked the 21st century, at least she tried to convince herself. She missed her real home sometimes and her old life sometimes though. She just wished that Anna didn't make such a big deal out of it, but it was Anna, so everything had to be a big deal.

"I hope that Jessica girl wasn't mean to you today," said Anna with concern.

Gwyn laughed and hugged her, "Of course not!"

Of course, she was lying, but whatever, Jessica was always being a bitch to her and her friends. Given, they were dubbed nerds, but at least she had the decency to care about her future.

Anna raised an eyebrow and set the cake on the table in front of her.

"Seriously," affirmed Gwyn, sticking a finger in the icing.

"Fine, you can have dessert first, but only today," was Anna's reply as she dug through her purse, trying to find something. She pulled out a small box that looked promising.

She didn't need to say it twice. Anna turned off the lights and sang the birthday song, "Make a wish!"

With that Gwyn blew out all sixteen of the candles and took the first bite of the cake. _"Hmmm, I wish that my life was more interesting." _She heard her phone start to ring, it was Gabby, but she couldn't pick her phone out of her pocket. The room began to blur and she started to feel drowsy, kind of like she had been drugged, but she hadn't, had she?

"Go to sleep, child," whispered Anna.

That's all she remembered before she went under. Some money or a car would have proved sufficient.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! Next chapter's up, so...here you go! Reviews are accepted.

"Where am I?" she groggily opened her eyes to the blinding light. She tried to lift her hand up to block her eyes, but found herself strapped to an operating table. Not like she hadn't been in this situation before_. _She panicked and struggled against the bonds, "Anna!" she screamed at the top of her lungs until they felt as though they may burst.

Anna's slight figure came up from behind and leaned over Mercy's prostrate body, "You can call me Emma Frost," she said in an English accent. "Who-what have you done with Anna!" Mercy yelled.

In Anna's voice she mocked, "Happy Birthday."

"It-it can't be you," she said incredulously.

"Ignorant child, and I thought Sinister had said that you were his prodigy."

She spat in the woman's face as she looked down. Almost immediately Mercy felt a searing pain in her head and the woman's voice inside of her, "Where do you think your precious Anna went to work every day, how did she get the money? She, or should I say I, reported everyday back to that mad man. Like it or not, he has been controlling your entire life right up to this day." Gwyn struggled, but was too weak from the drug. "He instructed me to raise you like a regular human child, to show you how hateful, how inferior humans are. I've seen you grow up Mercy."

How was Anna doing this?

"genetic mutation," she replied, "Your father is an expert in this sort of thing, you know."

"What does he want from me?"

"It's simple," smiled the witch, "he wants you dead!" with that that she whipped out a dagger. Mercy yelled as she ripped her hands from the table with a strength that she had never possessed before. All's she had now was her mind and her adrenaline.

Emma invaded her mind with her telepathic powers, "Hasn't your father ever taught you some Victorian values?" Her evil cackling face filled Mercy's vision as she fell to her knees, grabbing at her head. "Get out of my head!" she screamed with all her force.

"I love it when they try to fight," the White Queen chuckled, again trying to force her way into the girl's mind, "So much sorrow and pain," she projected into her conscious, "It will be all over in a bit , darling."

"You're just as sick as he is," said Mercy, slowly backing away from her opponent. She wanted to get as much time as she could, just enough time for her to run, "How could I have ever trusted you!" Emma forced her back out and grinned, "Uh, uh, uh, children should be seen, not heard." She looked around trying to find a good way to distract her enemy to bide her just enough time to get the hell out of there.

"Wait, so you're, like one of those mutants?" she piped in her best Jessica AKA dumb girl voice, "I thought you were s'posed to be all gross and stuff."

Emma's eyes narrowed, she was obviously falling for the old 'inadvertently call the-blonde-bitch-who-has-been-your-guardian-for-te n-years ugly' trick. That gave her just enough time to grab the cot and throw it at Emma. Mercy roughly kicked her in the gut on her way towards the door just for good measure.

Frost's eyes narrowed as she changed to a diamond like form, "You shouldn't have done that, sweetie." She charged at Mercy, pushing her out of the second story window and into the alleyway outside.

The shock of the blow was immediate. Mercy couldn't even react to the woman before she felt the wind and glass on her face from being slammed through a window. She let out a moan as she hit the cold, hard pavement. She still had so much to accomplish. "No," she forced out of her throat. She wasn't going to die today. She worked up her last bit of strength and crawled behind the dumpster. Maybe she was going to die.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, readers! Thanks for well...reading. **

She woke up to the blinding lights of a hospital. She knew all too well what that looked like. It brought her back to the morgue, the experiment, the nightmares. She hadn't remembered leaving her place in the alleyway. She heard voices and sat up quickly on her cot, she didn't feel like she had been pushed through a window. Maybe it had all just been a dream. She heard footsteps getting closer with every second and hid behind another set of curtains and waited for the enemy. She could only make out a figure of a large man approaching her former spot. The figure turned out to be a large man covered in blue fur with a beastly appearance. She gasped. He must be a mutant too.

He looked down, only to see the cot empty. He muttered something unintelligible to himself and spun around, looking for the girl. Mercy covered her mouth to try and stifle the sound of her breathing. "Ah," said the beast in a genial tone, "I see that you have made a full recovery." He was looking right at her hiding spot.

She didn't answer back out of fear and curiosity. She didn't want to reveal herself to a potential enemy without first assessing their physical and mental advantage.

"It's alright," he coaxed to her, "Despite my bestial appearance, I won't bite." He paused to wait for her response, "Very well, I see that you are a bit shy. I'll send Miss Grey in later."

The beast-man disappeared into the outer hallway. She was glad that he had gone. Truthfully she was absolutely terrified of these people. The only other mutant she had seen had tried to kill her via pushing her out a window, a closed window at that. _Ouch._ She grimaced at the thought, but still couldn't feel any of her injuries. Had she been out that long that her wounds had already healed, and what had that man meant by he'll send Miss. Grey in? Was she another mutant? Anyway, she probably at least had a few minutes to try and find a way out. There was no telling what they would do with her. She noticed the room was mostly bare except for a small sink and mirror and of course, the cot. _Mirror's probably made out of polished steel like in prison, because that's what this place is. _

She laughed at herself, "They'll probably kill me soon and eat my flesh or something like that. I think I saw that in a movie once at least," she began to talk to herself, "Great, now I'm talking to myself, next I'll be hanging myself with the bath towel." She laughed again. What else could she do besides laugh at her pathetic situation? "Mutation is the mother of evolution."

She glanced in the mirror just to see how messed up she looked from falling out a window. She gasped in shock. She looked away from her reflection for a minute, telling herself that she should just calm down and it was probably just an effect of PTSD or something. After a generous minute she slowly turned her head back. "1….2…3" Still, she saw that _thing_. That was the only way she could describe it because it certainly wasn't her reflection. It looked more like a monster…like her father, if she could really believe his words. She touched the mirror and so did the thing in the mirror. She gasped and so did the reflection. Was this really her? What had they done to her? Her hair had turned jet black and her skin had turned white, pure white. The eyes were the most terrible, she couldn't bear to look at them in the mirror, they were red and now she bore a red diamond shaped mark on her forehead.

"This-this isn't me. It can't be! It can't be." She repeated this over and over to herself as she rocked back and forth and sobbed through those blood red eyes. It wasn't supposed to work this way. You don't just wake up one day and look like a-a monster. "Who am I?" She knew she was Mercy Essex and that she had grown up with her foster mother and went to Midtown High, but what if that was a lie too?

It suddenly dawned on her, "He said I would be perfect." She widened her eyes at the realization that this was Sinister's doing. He had turned her into a monster, but why did it just manifest? It had been in her blood for such a long time. She was sure that this wasn't perfection.

She raked her fingers down the mirror and grimaced at her own reflection, revealing her now prominent canines. She hated that man. She wanted to-to kill him. She wanted to murder him and torture him for ruining her life. He had to pay. Her frustration turned to anger. She turned her hand to a fist and punched the glass out of the wretched mirror. She didn't even care about the blood that ran down her arm, at least she now knew that she wasn't dreaming. She glared in a sick kind of satisfaction. She looked down at her white and red hand. At least she was still somewhat human. She gasped when she saw the cut start to heal itself. Her eyes glowed with rage. "You bastard! Are you happy now!"

"Ummm, hello?" Jean knew she was supposed to greet this new student, but the room seemed empty. The only sign of life was the sound of sniffling and a bundle in the corner.

Mercy heard the door creak open and the red head come into the room. She must be Grey. Where was she even? "Are you one of his sluts? Are you here to finish me off?" she growled at the girl. The girl continued to come closer, but was obviously rattled. What had Mr. McCoy said to her?

"Stop!" Mercy held out her hand in the universal sign for stop, which made the other girl go flying like a ragdoll across the room. _"Was-was that me?"_

Jean groaned from across the room. No one had told her that the new girl was a telekinetic.

"Sorry," she said to the limp Jean Grey, she would have helped her out or something, but considering that Sinister may be on her tail right now, she bee lined for the door. _"Locked, damn it!"_ She slammed her fists against it in frustration, and surprisingly knocked down the door in the process. _"What am I?"_ She looked at her hands in wonder and horror of her new-found abilities.

She began to sprint at full speed down the hallways of the seemingly endless labyrinth. She half expected to run into another one of Sinister's lackeys, but there was no one in sight. She was left with her own thoughts and the patter of her feet against the metal passageways. "_Where will I even go if I get out of this place? I can't go back to Emma and I don't have any money myself. Gabby and Angie will freak out if they see me like this. Hell, I freak myself out." _She paused and listened for a minute; she could have sworn that she had heard voices. Sure enough, the clang of footsteps soon assaulted her ears along with voices. She couldn't let Sinister find her again. There was no telling what he could do to her. Without thinking, she quickly darted into the nearest door, which was iron and quite large. It probably would've been a strain to open, had it not been for her new enhanced strength.

"Weird," she thought aloud. The room was bare and completely made out of some sort of metal. It was huge and empty. This was either a really big closet space or- She spun around, hearing the whirring of a machine coming from beneath her feet. _"That's never a good sign."_

She screamed as a huge claw like mechanism, grabbed her around the waist. "Get off of me!"


	6. Chapter 6

Scott heard a loud crash coming from the Danger Room and as far as he knew, he was the only one leading a session today. Jean was supposed to be helping them, but he assumed that she was still helping the new student, so it was just him, Kitty, Kurt, and Rogue.

"Did you hear that?" asked Scott to his fellow teammates.

"Ja, it sounds like someone's in the Danger Room."

Scott flung open the door and ran inside at the sound of a scream.

"Jeez, it sounds like someone's dyin' in there," shuddered Rogue.

"Um, like, guys I think someone is dying," said Kitty, wide eyed at the girl being flung back and forth by the automatic defense system.

Scott took charge as usual and told them to get into formation. Kurt teleported Kitty over to the claw to phase the girl through the machine and Scott blasted the mainframe, shutting down the system.

"Are you okay?" asked Rogue, concerned for the new recruit.

Mercy nodded to them, "why did you save me?"

Scott smiled, "of course we helped you, that's what the institute is here for."

"Ve help mutants to control zheir powers," added Kurt, offering a hand to help her up. Gwyn shied away from his deformed hand. "Sorry," said Kurt, scratching his head, "I guess I just zhought you vould-never mind."

She felt bad for her evident fear of the mutant boy. She was grateful that they didn't show any fear towards her, seeing as she was afraid of herself. "Wait, you mean this isn't run by Sinister?"

The team looked at each other in confusion and shrugged. "Um, I don't like, think so," said Kitty, "My name's Kitty and this is Scott and there's Kurt, this is Rogue, and Jean is usually here, but she bailed today or something."

"Does she by any chance have red hair?" asked Mercy apprehensively.

"Yeah, how'd ya know?" asked Kitty.

"I sorta, might of, accidentally threw her across the room without using my hands."

"Cool!" cried Kurt. Scott glared at him, "but yeah, I hope Jean is okay too."

Mercy stared down at the floor, "I'm so, so sorry and I understand if you want to get rid of me. Hell, right now I want to get rid of me. It's just that I thought that Jean worked for my father and he's evil and all so-

Just then the Professor wheeled in to greet the new recruit, "I see you've met the other students."

"Yes, thank you," Mercy said as modestly as possible.

"Thank you for calling me in Scott," he dismissed the others and addressed Mercy.

"How-how did you know where I was?" she questioned.

"My machine Cerebro detected a unique signal around the area, but it was neither mutant nor human."

"I guess that's me. I don't fit in either way," she sighed, "my father-he did something to my DNA when I was younger. I don't understand either and I hate not knowing."

"Would you mind if Mr. McCoy ran some tests?"

Mercy shook her head no and followed him to the extensive lab. She looked around in wonder at the various microscopes and cat scans. She had never seen such high tech equipment all in one room.

"I see you enjoy my work place." Mercy was about agree, but looked up to see the beast man whom she had run from before.

"I'm-I'm sorry about before."

"Don't mention it," smiled the man, "I'm Hank McCoy and will be doing your testing. I recognize a fellow scientist when I see one."

Mercy grinned a little, "It…interests me." The man whom she had thought would tear her apart just a few hours ago was turning out to be one of the coolest people she had ever met.

"Perhaps you can help me out at the lab sometime," he offered, signaling her to sit down in the cushioned chair.

"That would be great!" she exclaimed, "I mean, I would love to work with you." She wanted to smile, but didn't want to reveal her pointed canines.

"I hope you're not afraid of needles," he said, hurrying about the lab and coming back with a long syringe. She was about to protest when he quickly stuck the needle through her delicate pale skin and drew enough blood to run the tests.

Mercy rubbed her arm, but held in her complaints. She waited in the chair as Mr. McCoy practically drooled over her blood samples. He kept exclaiming at how highly unusual it was. She was glad she was so entertaining, but she kind of wanted to see how messed up she was and if he could change her back to normal. This place was great and all, but she didn't want to be treated like a freak for the rest of her life. She nearly let out a sigh of relief when he looked finally scribbled the last thing into his notes.

"So, what's wrong with me?" she asked with fear and hope at the same time, her stomach churning.

"Nothing," said Hank plainly, "In fact, this…serum is actually keeping you alive. It seems to be changing all of the malignant cells into something completely different. It acts like more of a virus, moving through the body and reproducing inside of your self-cells. It's unlike anything I've ever seen."

"Can-can you change me back to my old self?" she half pleaded to him.

"I'm afraid not," he replied gravely, "this virus is what is keeping you alive. Without it your health would deteriorate almost instantly."

"But why?" she nearly shouted in anger, "This virus has been in my blood for over ten years and now it changes me?"

"Over 60% of your cells have been taken over. I assume the high concentration of the pathogen is what transformed your molecular structure," he said matter-of-factly, "but other than that you are fine Miss Essex."

Gwyn paused for a second to take in all that had just happened to her, her humanity was lost now… "Please don't call me by that name Mr. McCoy. I'm done with my old life. You helped me realize that."

"Oh, well, you're welcome," he said, surprised at the new determined tone in her voice, "I believe you are wanted in the dining hall."

She grinned and waved goodbye for now to him, hoping to take him up on his offer in the future. She followed the long corridor out into the large room centered around a mahogany table. It reminded her of the cavernous mansions that she and Elizabeth had visited while tending to patients. There was definitely the lack of death that always seemed to follow a practitioner of medicine. She was glad of the latter.

"Hello?" she called to the empty room, "Anyone there?" Of course there was no answer, but the introduction is customary whenever one enters a seemingly empty room just in case there is in fact a shout of confirmation back. Mercy took a seat and muttered to herself, "Well, if that's the way they treat a guest then I'm not so sure I want to stay here." She softly laughed to herself the way she did when she was nervous. What if they all changed their minds and kicked her out? What if that Jean girl hated her now? What if they were all afraid of her? She ran her hands up and down her arm. She remembered how the girls at her school used to complain how they couldn't get a tan. No, she wouldn't look back. She was here now. She wasn't human anymore.

She froze as she heard the noise of footsteps coming down the granite staircase and kids chatting. Sure enough all of the students came down and took their usual spots around the table. Gwyn had been scared that they would all hate her, but they didn't seem to even notice her. She sighed in relief that they all had ignored her she had never liked the attention anyway.

"Hello Professor," she said softly to the man who rolled up beside her. He greeted her and asked her to come with him. "_Where are we going?"_ He proceeded to take her to the head of the table and cleared his throat. To her horror everyone stopped and stared at them. Her palms suddenly got sweaty and she tightened her hands into fists.

"We have a new student. She has just arrived today and I would like everyone to give her a warm welcome." She nervously laughed and gave a slight wave.

She heard the murmurs of her fellow housemates and shrunk back into her own mind.

After a few minutes of hellos they all began to chatter amongst themselves again.

She smiled and sat down next to the people who had saved her before.

"So, vhat's your name?" asked the German boy-Kurt.

"Um- She wasn't sure what to call herself anymore. The name Mercy just didn't seemed to fit anymore-she would show no mercy to the man who did this to her. She glanced at the brunette known as Kitty's magazine and picked the first name she saw on the cover, "My name's Claudine…Claudine Renko.

"What's up with the thing on your forehead?" asked a blonde boy sitting adjacent to her with glares from the rest of them.

"I'm Hindu. Yeah, I came here from India, but most people don't believe it because I'm like, so pale and all. Thanks a bunch for asking about my homeland though," she replied as seriously as she could.

"Oh, uh-cool," said the boy, not getting her joke, but the rest of them seemed to laugh.

"You're funny," giggled the perky brunette. _"Me, funny? No way. More like antisocial, but never funny."_

"Thanks," she said, "But, seriously I'm American but I was born and raised until I was about five in Britain in case you guys wanted to know."

The three seemed to be satisfied with talking with her for now and resumed eating and talking about the impossible math test they had today.

_"__Claudine Renko…hmm, sounds kind of nice."_


	7. Chapter 7

After dinner everyone scattered almost immediately. It was almost impressive… She shuddered and pretended to look away at some distant object as Jean walked right towards her, probably to bitch at her. She seemed like one of those way-too-perfect-popular-sports-star- cheerleader-types whom she hated.

"I am so sorry about before," she apologized, "It's just that-

"No need to apologize," smiled Jean, "Let's start over again; I'm Jean and I'll be showing you to your new room."

"My name is Claudine," she echoed in surprise.

Jean led her up the stairs and into a uniform door on her left, "Here you go," she presented, "You are so lucky. You get your own room for now until another student moves in."

"yay, closet space," she said unenthusiastically. She had sort of wanted a roommate-at least someone who she could walk to class with and get to know better.

"Almost forgot, here's your schedule for classes," Jean handed her a slip of paper and walked out with a wave, "By the way, breakfast is at 6."

"Thanks," she called to her new acquaintance. She couldn't help but wonder how she could possibly go to school though. She hated missing school and all, but wouldn't she scare everyone half to death. She had to admit that she did look a little like a vampire. She shrugged off her feelings of self-doubt and opened her new closet to find it fully stocked with her old clothes. She silently thanked the Professor for nabbing her old clothes out of her old apartment.

She combed out her silky black hair and brushed her teeth, rediscovering her pointed canines. She spent nearly ten minutes looking in the mirror at her new appearance. It scared her but she laughed anyway because she figured that just about everyone in her new school would know she was a mutant and on top of that she was had already decided to ignore anyone who came into contact with her. Between those two things she would be dead meat that was if she didn't accidentally kill someone with her super strength or something. She remembered how the mutants had gotten treated in her old school. When the word had gotten out of the mutant 'crisis' it became a point to make any mutant's life a living hell. She had just ignored the whole thing, but now how could she if she was one? She resolved that she would go to school for the learning and nothing else.

She flopped onto her bed in exhaustion and fell almost immediately asleep.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP!" The alarm-clock caused her to spring out of bed with superhuman agility and smash the imminent threat. Her eyes widened, realizing it was just a clock and not some sort of killer robot from planet x. "Looks like someone's gonna have to buy me a new alarm clock," she muttered to herself.

She walked over to her closet and pulled out a black hoodie, jeans, and a pair of lace up boots and hastily threw them on.

"So, are you excited about your first day of school?" asked Jean enthusiastically.

"Yeah," She nodded groggily and took a bite of her bagel.

"Scott will be taking you guys today in the X Van."

There were a series of groans from Kitty, Kurt, and the others. "Why do we have to take that old thing? It practically screams loser," moaned Kitty, crossing her arms, but despite their protests Scott drove around front with the massive van anyway. Claudine had to admit that it was really dorky and would just add to her mutant predicament. "_Remember; you don't care what they think of you. You're just there to learn and then get the hell out of there. It'll be fine. What's the worst that can happen anyway? They hang me. That's the worst that could happen or even worse; they could send me to the principal's office. I'm not cut out for that stuff. I'll die in there first."_

_ "_I can't do it!" she blurted out as she got into the car.

"What?" asked Kitty who was sitting next to her.

"They're going to kill me or run away from me. I just can't do it!"

"Relax," Scott assured, "the Professor told me to give you this." He handed her a watch, "Put it on and you'll look just like everyone else."

She slipped it on and pressed the button in the center. She gasped as her skin turned to its normal color again. She looked in the side view mirror to find that her teeth looked human again and the red mark on her forehead had disappeared. She touched her face and smiled, "How-

Kurt relied from the front, "It's a hologram, see?" He put his on and looked just like any other normal guy. She sighed. At least she could be normal to the outside world.

She was surprised at her first day. It had been rocky getting to class, but her initial fear that the inducer would break didn't come to fruition and she got by pretty well.

Her second period had been chemistry. She got there early and chose a seat in the front where she could best see the board.

She sat in front of Kurt and felt relieved that another mutant was in the class with her. The teacher arrived late, papers falling out of her arms as she walked.

"She started off the class taking attendance and then progressed to organic chemistry.

"Who can tell me what makes up an ester?" Claudine immediately raised her hand to the question. It way too easy for an AP class, but everyone else seemed reluctant to answer. Was that like, an unwritten rule or something? Never answer chemistry questions? _"Oh well, guess I've got no competition."_

"An organic acid and an alcohol," she said confidently. The teacher nodded and smiled enthusiastically.

"It seems we have a new student. What was your name…was it Clarissa or-

"Claudine Renko," she replied softly. Everyone was staring at her with animosity. _"Is my image inducer faulty or something?" _She looked at her hands to find perfectly normal, human skin. At least that hadn't went wrong so far. The rest of the class was made up of her answering just about every question and the rest of the students glaring at her. She didn't understand why they didn't want to participate. It did affect your GPA, right?

The teacher called class dismissed and everyone filed out except for Claudine and the brunette who had been sitting beside her.

"So, you really want to be pinned as a nerd on the first day?" asked the girl, pushing in her chair.

"I just want to ace this course is all," she stuttered, unnerved by someone besides the kids from the institute talking to her.

"You're from that mutant place, right?" asked the girl whose name turned out to be Tammy.

"What do you mean?" asked Claudine in mock confusion. Maybe if she just played dumb she would buy into it.

"You mean you aren't from that place?" Claudine pretended to look at her watch and began to run, I'd love to talk, really, but truth is I'm going to be late for calculus. Bye!" That was a close one. She almost just got in even bigger trouble than she already was in. She didn't want to be known as the mutant girl.

Despite her crisis, she bit the bullet and sat by the others at lunch. The rest of the day passed uneventfully by and consisted of the usual school activities; note writing, lectures, and all. It seemed like forever before the final bell rang and she could get all her stuff from her locker and go back to her new home. She saw the others sprinting back towards the institute.

"Where are you guys going!" she shouted at them.

"Ve have one of Wolverine's intensive training sessions," yelled back Kurt to her.

"He gets real mad if yur late," added Rogue for emphasis. She didn't know what Kurt had meant by training session, but she sure didn't want to get Wolverine mad. She had already seen him yelling at some of the other kids before and he was intimidating to say the least.

She panted and threw her backpack down to the ground. Kitty threw her a balled up uniform and told her to go put it on (quickly of course).


	8. Chapter 8

I remind you that your reviews are highly revered by this author. Pretty please?

She felt ridiculous in the skin tight dark purple uniform they had given her along with her thigh high black combat boots. She didn't want to offend anyone, but what school's uniforms looked like they could double as bizarre club wear? They had told her to meet them in the Danger Room, that room with the giant death trap, but so far she had no luck in finding the damn thing. "_This would have been so much easier if I had just pretended I was sick today or fainted or faked my death, but no, I just had to get up."_ She seemed to have had no trouble finding it on her first day there, but now it seemed like the giant room had just disappeared.

Finally, she found the large metal door again and pulled it open with no problem to find her fellow teammates already lined up and ready to go.

"Umm…Hello?" she called to the hulking man leading the session.

He…growled at her. Did he seriously just growl at her? "Sinister…"

She ignored the urge to ask him; so hey, you're friends with my daddy? A lot of people seem to know him, but anyways…

"Since you're new here, I'll let ya go with a warning, bub, but if it happens again…"

She wondered what would happen if it happened again, but actually really didn't want to find out.

"Let's see what you've got." He called to the others to stop their training exercises to come see the new girl's initiation test.

"Um…Mr. Wolverine…if I may call you that, I don't really think this is a good idea because you see, I don't even know what my powers are and-

He didn't seem to be listening, "Just go out there kid, you think too much."

Wow, and to think that she had thought that thinking was essential for decision making all this time… She started off at the first end of the massive room and was supposed to fight her way across to get to the other side. The others were watching her and cheering her on from the sidelines. She heard cries of "GO CLAUDINE!" but ignored them. She was pretty much certain that she was going to die. She braced herself for the go signal and tried to calm herself down. She had always had test anxiety, especially when she had almost gotten killed by this 'test' before.

"And…GO!" yelled Wolverine. She started out by sprinting towards the little red flag at a new speed which she had never been able to reach without her powers. "_Nothing so far."_ She got about halfway across the room before the dreaded metallic arm came bursting out of the floor. She shrieked as it came right at her, "You are not getting me this time!" She grabbed the base and ripped it out of the floor with surprising strength. She heard the rest of them cheering and was about to curtsy when she heard the whirring of more gears, which inevitably meant more death machines…

She narrowly dodged a Frisbee with built in metal blades, cursing at the room and her life in general on the way there. "Are you happy now, room? Are you happy now! You nearly chopped off my head, you big metal trash heap!" She gulped as she heard more gears coming to life. "_Nice room…"_

A red laser shot at her, not from Cyclops, and hit her head-on. She stumbled back and felt the sticky blood pooling on her arm, healing the cut simultaneously. She silently thanked Sinister for giving her this healing factor and kicked in the laser beam. She was slid for the finish and hit the switch to turn off the room. "Hey, I didn't die!"

Jean ran over to congratulate her, "Nice first run!" She was about to reply when the Wolverine cut in, "Sloppy, but effective, I guess." She took that as a compliment in a backhanded sort of way, but still a compliment. Scott backed off from praising her like the others and just stood with his back against the wall the whole time. Figures…

So, she left the Danger Room with some of her dignity intact, even though she didn't know the full extent of her powers. The next few weeks went pretty much smoothly, the same run-throughs and sessions. Jean had been instructed to keep a close eye on Claudine, seeing as her powers were steadily increasing and she sort of became a maternal figure to her. Even though, she hadn't really made many close friends yet, Claudine seemed to fit well into the everyday routines and dynamic of the X-Men. She fought with them in several battles against the Brotherhood, earned herself a spot on Wolverine's most hated students list, and even began helping Hank out in the lab. She also has one very awkward talk with Scott, "So…you're from Nebraska…that's one of the square states, right?" "Yup." "You seem like you would be from there." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nothing, nothing at all." "Where are you from then?" "London, 1800's. It was pretty chill, I guess once you get used to the whole no sanitation thing, so…"

Unfortunately, she had just started to enjoy having her own room, seeing as there was pretty much no privacy in the mansion, when she got her new roommate.

"Claud, there's someone the Professor says he wants you to meet!" called up Jean to Claudine, who was busy doing homework while chatting with Kitty about how cute Jean and Scott were together.

"Coming, Mrs. Summers!" she yelled back , making Kitty giggle.

"What?" said Jean to herself and partially to the new arrival. Apparently she was Wolverine's clone or something, and based on how she knew Claudine and Wolverine got along, she was very interested as to how this would go.

Claudine ran down the stairs, feeling a mixture of hope, anxiety, and annoyance. She swore if her new roommate snored, she would kill them in their sleep, but that was beside the point.

"Hello, I'm Claudine, and I guess you're going to be sharing a room with me," she said nervously to the girl standing in front of her with black hair like hers and slightly tanned skin. She stuck out her hand to shake hands and the girl growled at her. "_Oh no, did I scare her?"_ Claudine had been debating on whether or not she should put on her image inducer for the arrival of the new student or not.

"I'm X-23, but you can call me Laura," she snarled back.

She tried to help her with her bag, but earned a glare and an "I can get it myself" from Laura. She sighed to Jean, "Looks like my new roommate doesn't like me very much."

"She'll warm up to you," assured Jean shakily, "You know how it is on the first day. By the way, the Professor made sure her schedule is the same as yours so you can show her the ropes."

Claudine just nodded and went up to show her guest around the mansion, which she still got lost in from time to time. She was about to tell Laura that she would just clean her stuff out of Laura's drawer's to make room, but came in to see her stuff scattered about the room.

"I see you've made yourself at home," said Claudine, trying to keep the bitterness out of her tone, and forced a smile, "So, what are you in for?"

Laura unsheathed her claws. They were like Wolverine's, but there were two on each hand and one coming out of each foot, "I'm Logan's clone."

Claudine simply nodded, not seeing that coming, but now making sense out of Laura's attitude towards her. She proceeded to give her a tour around the mansion, showing her the Danger Room, the X-Jet, and Cerebro. Laura didn't talk much, but that was fine with her; less work.

It was an awkward night for Claudine to say the least. Hell, she was half expecting to wake up with an adamantium claw through her stomach. It was times like these that she was grateful that Sinister gave her a healing factor. She had been unfortunately instructed to help Laura around the school in the morning and had the difficult job of waking her up from her restless slumber.

Claudine flinched as she tried to shake Laura awake, "Hello? It's morning time. Wake up Sleeping Beauty." She slapped her forehead after the fifth time of trying to get her awake the polite way. "No more Mr. Nice Guy…or would it be Ms. Nice Girl? Oh wait that would be Jean." She braced herself and screamed loudly, "You're going to make us late!" Sure enough, Laura jumped up with a snarl and tackled her down to the floor, managing to slash her arm open.

"Oh great, now I'm going to get blood all over the carpet," she whined to her roommate.

"Sorry," Lauren replied with an utter sense of carelessness, "I don't like to be woken up." The two managed to get to the van with no more incidents. There was little talk also. They got to school just on time, Kurt with his Burger Bomb and Kitty with the grimace of distaste on her face that she always had when she saw someone eating meat.

Laura was instructed to sit next to her in every class, yes, every class. It was enough to drive her mad, but she sucked it up, like a good teammate. In every class Laura was soooo annoying though. It was like she didn't even care about learning, the most precious thing in the world, the one thing that nobody, not even Sinister could take away, instead Laura proceeded to tap the desk, her feet, fling pencils across the room and every other annoying thing in the book.

Finally Claudine snapped, "What are you doing?" she hissed in a whisper. Laura shrugged. It was infuriating. "Now you're just trying to get me to lose it."

"Maybe, you wouldn't be so uptight if you didn't obsess over every little thing. It's borderline personality disorder."

"At least I can actually spell personality disorder. Do you have any idea how hard it is to concentrate with you sitting next to me?"

Claudine heard the teacher clearing her throat and turned back around. "Excuse me girls, was I interrupting something?"

"No, I'm very sorry," replied Claud as Laura simultaneously spat out, "yeah." The teacher turned back around to resume the lesson.

Again, Laura began to tap her foot. "Can you please, please, please stop?" whispered Claudine, exasperated.

Laura continued to tap her foot.

"Please?"

"You have to lighten up."

"Stop it."

"Make me."

"Maybe I will."

"Girls!" yelled Mrs. Finch, "If you can't sort out your problems here, go to the principal's office!"


	9. Chapter 9

Teammate tensions...How typical.

That is how Claudine found herself in the principal's office for the very first time.

"I assume you two have been sent in here for a reason," said Principal Kelly, addressing the two girls in the waiting room.

"Oh, yes Mr. Kelly," beamed Claudine innocently.

"What are you doing?" whispered Laura.

"Getting us out of here with some good old fashioned manipulation."

"Let's see…" dragged out Kelly, fingering through his files and finally stumbling upon theirs, "You are both from the Xavier Institute."

"Yes, sir," affirmed Claudine.

"So, you are both mutants," he said with contempt.

"No sir we-

"Yeah, we are. You got a problem with that?" glared Laura. If Laura had nothing else, she had guts. That fact alone landed them with a week of detention and a lifetime of contempt from Principal Kelly.

"Did you seriously just do that?" asked Claud in disbelief, "Why?"

"I'm tired of hiding," said Laura simply, "I can't even believe you still hide with your little watch."

Claudine was about to kill this girl in her sleep, but instead spilled her desperate situation to Mr. McCoy as she helped him run more tests on her unusual blood sample. He laughed and told her to calm down and give her another chance, of course. She really needed to blow off some steam in training, but who happened to be there, but Laura.

Wolverine explained the exercise to them, "Ok, today you're gonna be doing a little survival exercise. The objective is to get the whole team to safety, but you won't have your usual team leaders because you'll have to save them too."

She noticed Jean and Scott on a platform across the room. The room whirred to life signaling the start of training. Claudine could hear Kurt yelling something to them about a strategy and usually she would have listened, except that X-23 had already left for the platform. She smiled, the new girl thought that she could beat her that easily? She took off through the maze of wires, setting off the flying blades.

"Hey! Like, wait up!" shouted Kitty, but she was already neck and neck with X-23 who was tangled up with the obstacle, literally. Hank's words came back to her, "You and Laura are teammates now, and should treat each other with respect." She brushed away the thought and ran past the girl. _"I'm obsessive for a reason. Maybe with a little more caution you could have avoided that."_

Suddenly, a laser beam came out of nowhere, knocking her to the ground and giving X-23 the obvious advantage. Claudine knew she was injured, but kept going. Her healing factor should take care of that. She ran for what seemed like her life; Laura was almost there and she couldn't afford to lose to her. She sighed in relief when a metal tentacle came out of the ground and wrapped itself around her opponent's body. X-23 slashed through the first tentacle, but more kept coming out of the ground. Claudine laughed aloud at her plan of brute strength and no tactics.

She was clear for the platform when one of the many tentacles caught her leg in its grasp. She slapped her fist in frustration.

"How does it feel now?" sneered Laura, "Not laughing now, are you?"

"No, but I know that I can get out." She writhed in the coils and managed to slip her foot out and run again towards victory. Laura too, loosed herself of the trap, motivated by Claudine's insufferable perfectionist attitude. "You're not the only one who can escape some tight spots." She leapt after Claudine so that she could finally prove herself at this institute. She liked it better in the woods where she didn't have to listen to any uptight, stuck up snobs like Claudine.

They both pressed the release button at the same time, releasing their team leaders. "Looks like I won," celebrated Laura.

"No, I won," countered Claudine.

"I got here first, cheater!"

"I've been at this school longer than you have and this is how you treat me?"

"That doesn't change the fact that I won."

"If factually, you did win then why did I press the button first?"

"Girls, break it up!" yelled Wolverine.

"I won, right?" said Laura eagerly.

"No, I believe she meant to say that I won."

"Both of you lost! Look at what you've done to the training room!" he practically screamed, gesturing to the clawed and dented room behind them, "The exercise was to get all you teammates to safety, not just yourselves, and thanks to you, you all would have died!"

Claudine was about to say something, when he cut her off, "You won't be able to talk yourself out of it this time, Dracula. Both of you are on cleaning duty, now!"

"Bet I'll have to do all the work here too," said Laura.

"Alright, we'll see," replied Claudine coolly, lifting up a severed metal claw without effort.

Claudine knew she was supposed to help her, but how could she when Laura was so impossible? She was about to lose it if she hadn't already. Likewise, Laura was seething under her determined look. The Professor had told her that she would get along just fine with her roommate, but he was so wrong. She was nervous about Logan's brilliant plan to get her back into society and no one seemed to be helping her.

Both girls refused to talk to each other as they cleaned up, but they got the job done. Meanwhile, the Professor could concern himself with their social issues. He thought by now they would have warmed up to each other, both seemed broken in a sort of way. Lauren never had a normal life, always on the run, always facing adversity and torture. Her thoughts were jumbled like pieces of some puzzle missing a few pieces. Her only family was Logan, and she even felt some hatred towards him. She needed someone, and Claudine was suffering even though she wouldn't admit it. He knew that her real name wasn't Claudine Renko and that she hadn't wanted these powers. She felt great animosity towards humanity and her father. She felt as if she didn't fit in with mutants or humans. She had been immersed in her work with Hank for the past week. It was unhealthy for someone her age. Still, he wanted to give them one last chance to fix each other.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry, this is more of a filler than anything else. It does set up for later chapter though, so I guess it was necessary. If you feel the need to review, please go right on ahead.

Wednesday went like every other day for Claudine. She got up, had to face Lauren, and of course she found some way to be unbearable.

"I want the other bed," said Claudine, "It is no fair that I have to get this side of the room. It's a bloody mess, and I'm not just saying that because I'm British."

"It was you who tried to wake me up," replied Lauren pointedly, "Plus, it's your blood." Lauren had watched her roommate desperately scrubbing the floor, trying to get the stain out and saying that the Professor was going to kill them.

Claudine threw Lauren's backpack at her. "Ow!" She felt a ghost of a smile twitch on her lips as the bag hit X-23 in the head. It wasn't like she was going to use it anyway.

They came downstairs to the sound of the news blaring in the rec room, "It's the third day of the mysterious disappearances, and it has been speculated that-

The Professor was waiting for them, "Laura, Claudine, I implore you both to be careful today. As you probably know, these kidnappings have been ongoing and Cerebro has detected new mutant signatures from the area."

"So, you're saying that you suspect a mutant as the kidnapper?" asked Claudine incredulously.

"Not just one mutant," sighed the Professor, "just be careful, all of you." Laura mumbled under her breath. Xavier was just being overprotective. She could take care of herself. She took down Weapon X, didn't she? Plus, what would mutants want with ordinary people?

First and second period went as planned, with the usual ballet of dodging other students, mutant haters, and cheerleaders. Everything was going as planned; of course there was the usual tension between the two girls, but nothing like their first day together.

Claudine was rubbing her temples as the history teacher began to call attendance. She had a massive headache. She had been getting them since she began to come to the institute, but this was the worst yet. It felt like her brain was throbbing and would burst if she heard one more word, but she mustn't put her head down, she couldn't bear to tarnish her GPA for a silly headache. If she could get through a session with Logan, she could do anything, but still, it must have looked pretty bad because even Lauren asked her if everything was okay.

"Yeah," I've been thinking too much lately. Yeah, that was it. She had to cut out those late night research sessions. She figured that she could maybe find a cure to her…condition, but so far, nothing.

She had just gotten to the m's when the rest of them began talking. Claudine couldn't believe that the teacher wouldn't reprimand all of the other students for talking so much during class. She could hardly hear herself think. The noise only added to the pain in her already aching head.

Laura noticed her roommate holding her head and moaning halfway through attendance, "Are you sure you're okay?" The other girl moaned something back and covered her ears. Claudine muttered something about telling them to stop, they were too loud. Her image inducer began to flicker and soon the whole classroom was staring.

Claudine gripped her head tighter and tighter and attempted to cover her ears to block out the incessant noise. Even with her hands clasped over her ears, she could still hear the voices, but it was strange because they were different from what she had ever heard before; they were inside her head. It wasn't even a specific presence, but a group of nonstop chatter jumbled together from different brains.

She didn't even notice that she was now writhing in pain on the dirty school floor. The students began to whisper and added to the noise already in her mind. Laura got to the ground when the desks began to rattle, various pencils and pens falling to the floor. An earthquake in New York? The shink of her claws coming out was unmistakable. This was getting weird; all of the objects in the room began to levitate.

"Everyone get down!" she shouted to the others who were staring helplessly.

"_Make it stop_!" Claudine's voice projected into her head and by the looks of it everyone else's in the vicinity. She let out an unearthly shriek before completely passing out, sending all of the air-born paraphernalia clattering to the floor. "Claudine?" said Lauren, shaking the girl on the ground, "Claudine!" What the hell just happened? She addressed the bewildered history teacher at the front of the room, "Claudine has a headache. I have to bring her to the nurse now."

With that she dragged the body out of the room and out of the school, and back to the haven of the institute. "Professor, I don't know what happened to her!" she yelled frantically, gesturing at Claudine's limp figure on the cot before them. She had already told him exactly what had happened and so far all he had done was take her to the infirmary. Hank checked her heartbeat and took another blood sample, "Miss Renko seems to be fine, but the virus's conversion has been completed. It sounds like this…episode in the classroom can be traced back to a new ability that has manifested as a result. For now there is nothing we can do.


	11. Chapter 11

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She forced her eyes open to see the blinding light of the infirmary. She blinked back the stinging in her eyes. She jumped a little to see Lauren sitting in the dark corner of the room and then Mr. McCoy above her.

"The voices are gone," she mused.

"The Professor has blocked your mental abilities until you have a few sessions with him," he explained.

She saw out of the corner of her eye, Laura departing from her room as Hank explained her newly gained abilities and strength of the virus. She could hardly recall what had happened, just the noise that came from her mind and seemed to manifest in her ears. Sleep came effortlessly and swiftly for once with the faintest trace of the nasty headache still lingering. "_I see you have come back, my child," uttered her father and her worst enemy. She looked around to find she was no longer in her bed, but back in the lab where he had taken away the last thing she held sacred, her humanity, and now there was none left. The virus had taken over and left her a stranger in her own body. Now with a flick of her wrist she could either save or end someone's life. It was so tempting… What was she thinking? Had he truly gotten to her?_

_ "__Why have you brought me here?" she snarled._

_ "__What are you talking about…Claudine?" he replied innocently, "you are the one that came to me. You always will come back to me."_

_ "__I wouldn't even if you dragged me here in chains! I would never come back to this awful place on my own."_

_She inched back as he came closer to her, "You remind me of myself, Claudine. You are almost a spitting image you know." He smiled, showing his pointed canines like hers._

_ "__I'm nothing like you!" she screamed and grabbed for a scalpel, the sharpest thing she could find. She lunged and dug into his pale skin, grinning at the sight of the ruby red blood. Her satisfaction was only cut short by the sight of the cut instantly healing itself._

_ "__Your powers are all like my own," he laughed to her, "You regenerate at a pace ten times faster than a human's-just like I do."_

_ "__I'm still human!" she cried._

_ "__No, you have evolved into something greater than the powerless scum that pollutes the earth and even stronger than the mutants who scourge the planet. Don't you see Claudine?"_

_ "__What is there to see if I'm a freak amongst mutants and humans? How can I live with myself if I'm a monster?" Red swam in front of her eyes and her attention want to the floor beneath her. There was red everywhere._

_ "__Do you see now?" he asked her again. Her eyes shifted from one body to the next. Her friends-they were all staring with their cold, lifeless eyes and seemed to be pleading with her. "What have you done!" she screamed at Sinister._

_ "__Nothing," he replied calmly as she looked down at her hands in horror, "Yes Claudine, I have done nothing, but look instead upon what you have done." She looked down at the crusted blood under her fingertips and the red which poisoned her white skin and she laughed and laughed at what she had done. She was Sinister._

**"****Beep Beep Beep." **The sound of the alarm tore her out of her horrid nightmare to find that Laura was standing over her.

"Yes?" she asked, annoyed to her roommate.

"You've kept me up all night, Dracula. It sounded like you were dying or something. I've been trying to get you to snap out of it but you just keep saying something about sinister."

"Thanks for the concern," snapped Claudine , trying to get onto another topic, "but I was probably just having a nightmare. I can't even remember what it was about."

Laura shrugged and went back to getting dressed while Claudine let out a long sigh. She was not Sinister. That was maybe the only thing she could be sure of.

When she stumbled tiredly down the stairs she wasn't surprised to see the news on and a reporter talking about the mysterious disappearances. She rolled her eyes.

The professor called on her telepathically just as she was about to eat, "_Miss Renko, you are needed in my office."_

She wondered if she was in trouble or something, but went there immediately nevertheless, "Yes, Professor?"

"You must understand the changes that have occurred in your abilities."

"I guess, if that's what you want to call it."

"You are here to learn how to control these powers and as things have been going, I feel you should learn all you can very quickly."

"As things have been going?"

He ignored her comment and kept talking, "I simply believe that it would be best if you stayed home today so I can help you master your powers a bit better."

"And by 'a bit better' you mean not freak out an entire classroom," she stated matter of factly and rolled her eyes, knowing he was right.

"Well-

"You did put those mental blocks up, Professor and I'll be really careful. It's just that there's this chemistry test and I don't want to have to make it up because Ms-

"Alright," sighed Xavier, cutting her off. She had a tendency to babble.

"Thank you."

She scarfed down a bowl of cereal, put on her image inducer which was luckily fixed by Dr. McCoy the night before and hopped in the only available seat in the van which was unfortunately next to Laura. She was still puzzled as to why Laura had actually helped her the day before, confused and disgusted that she may owe her life to her worst enemy/roommate. Embarrassed, she took out her textbook and began to pretend to read so she wouldn't have to say those terrible two words; I'm and Sorry.

Her head snapped up due to a strange buzzing noise in her head, almost like a radio tuning itself. She dropped the textbook to the floor and everyone looked back at her. "Are you okay?" asked Kitty. "_I bet she's just trying to get attention."_

"Excuse me?" asked Claudine, confused to why Kitty was telling her this.

"I just asked if you were okay," she repeated.

"Oh…yes," she replied, putting her head in her hands.

"_I wonder if she's really okay."_

"I'm really fine, thank you," she told Jean.

"I didn't say anything," replied Jean.

The mental block that the Professor said he put on wasn't working- at least that was the only explanation that she could think of. Her headache was starting up again and she had a grave feeling that today was going to be very, very long. She did learn that Kitty secretly thought she was an attention hog though, like she really wanted to know that. Her new powers were proving to be _super_ annoying.

Her prediction turned out to be right. By the time she got home she had the massive headache again after the day of listening to everyone's thoughts (some of which were very , very private). She even had to leave during the test because the teacher was 'giving' her the answers. She had had to pretend she felt sick and spent the period with the nurse, and did it seriously matter which type of tomatoes are used in lasagna?

"How was school?" asked the Professor gently which caused her to jump, accidently activating her telekinesis and breaking a vase.

"It was great," she lied through her teeth to the most powerful telepath in the world, "and the foyer looks better without the vase."

"Meet me in my office to start your training," he replied.

"Please Professor, can I wait? There is so much that I must do. My powers can wait. Right now I just want to pretend I'm a normal teenager. Just for one day. Please," she pleaded.

Xavier sighed, "Alright, but I expect you to keep everything under control Miss Renko."

"Yes, Professor." She began to ascend up to her room once again.

"And Claudine!"

"Yes?"

"You mustn't ignore the fact that you are not normal, that you are blessed with great abilities," he called up to her.

"Yes, Professor."

Once in her room, she finally got to close her eyes and shed the pain that the day had caused her mind. She sighed and lay down on the bed. Quiet at last…

_His red eyes flashed before hers as he cackled to her on his throne of flesh and bone and she laughed too at what they had accomplished and she sipped from her goblet sewn of the sinews of the frail human's body. They shared together in the joy of the pain…they had brought the whole world to its knees!_

Her eyes flew open to the plain walls of the mansion and Laura's face hovering above hers with concern. She was here. It was only a dream. Once again…only a dream…

"You're sure you're okay?" offered Laura who had shaken her awake, "You looked like you were having a hell of a nightmare plus the bed started hovering."

"Yeah," she tried to convince herself more than Laura. She felt angry that once again Laura had saved her from herself.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey readers, thanks for well...reading and keeping the literacy rate up and...stuff. Keep it up

A day turned into a week and Claudine refused the Professor's help each time he offered it. She didn't want the help because that would only acknowledge what was happening to her and she did not want to think about that world of monsters and mutants and villains. She immersed herself instead in her work in the lab and her school work. It was better than having to face her problems and way better than Logan's Danger Room sessions. Hell, maybe if she completely ignored it her powers would simply disappear. That thought was soon disproved though. Every single waking hour there was the chatter of other's minds in her head; Kitty wanted this new dress and Scott and Jean were cuddling and Bobby and Kurt were coming up with a brilliant plan to freeze over the pool. The only person whose thoughts didn't invade her mind was Laura's. She still had no clue about her roommate or where she came from, how she ended up here, or anything else for that matter. She had to admit her curiosity even if it was only the slightest bit.

The worst were the nights because she would go to bed uncertain of how or if she would wake up herself again or if the darkness inside of her would swallow her up. Laura had woken her up one night because half the room was lifted off the ground, only to crash to the floor as she woke up. She knew what the others thought of her; that she needed help, that she was out of control. She wasn't though. She kept telling herself that every time Sinister met her in her dreams or she stood over the corpses of her challengers. She knew also that the Professor was getting concerned for her. At school she didn't talk to anyone, she simply went there to get the grade and brushed past all of the others like they didn't matter. They didn't.

"Are you alright?" Jean had asked her, "You haven't spoken to anyone all day."

"Why does everyone keep asking me that!" she snapped at the red head. She paused for a moment and smiled in derision but caught herself and quickly spat, "I'm so sorry. That was-terrible of me. I just have a lot on my mind. There's this thing and…I've got to go."

She turned before Jean could get another word in. "_There was this thing? How much more obvious could it be besides if I actually said 'hey Jean, I really couldn't care less'? _She felt guilty as hell, but she had to get back to work. She figured if she worked hard enough in her research that she might find a cure and be able to speak without holding back what she really meant to say.

The lab wasn't much better. She had taken another blood sample and thought she had reached a breakthrough. A few cells were still uninfected. She had broken the table in two in anger when the virus had taken those over too. Radiation hadn't worked either; it destroyed the remaining cells while encouraging the diseased ones to take over. She had cursed and slammed her fist down on the table. Dr. McCoy had told her to get some rest, but how could she rest when she knew at any moment she could simply lose the battle?

She tried to keep her eyes open as long as she could and tried thinking about everything but sleep, but unfortunately one can preoccupy oneself with vanilla soft serve for only so long. She felt her eyes closing and her mind wandering into drowsiness. "I-gotta stay up," she mumbled to herself before closing her eyes.

_She was back in her room and awake. She was so glad that she hadn't fallen asleep. Laura was still asleep though. She looked so vulnerable when she was just lying there like that. She smiled but wasn't quite sure why. She knew it had something to do with X23. "Come on, don't you hate her? Wouldn't you like to get her back for all of those things she's said to you?" she thought to herself. It was tempting. _

_Without another thought she found herself using her powers to will Laura to get up and face her. She did as Claudine wanted her to. "Yes," she thought and smiled. She willed Laura to point the backs of her hands to her abdomen. Claudine anticipated the snikt of her claws and the screams of pain. _

"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Laura at her, "Stop messing with my head!" Her claws were dangerously close to her skin and getting closer.

"Huh?" asked Claudine sleepily and then realized that it hadn't just been a dream. She was torn out of her trance and allowed Laura out of her power. "Was-was that me?" she asked, looking at her hands in disbelief.

"Yeah! Do you really think I was doing this out of free will?" she snarled and pinned Claudine against the wall, her claws still out, "I knew that I shouldn't have trusted you."

Claudine wasn't even listening anymore. She stayed limp against the wall and stared at the floor. Laura continued to scream at her, "What were you thinking? You could have fucking killed me!"

She didn't know what she had been thinking. Something inside of her just told her that it was right. She should kill because it was what he made her to do. She looked up vaguely at the sound of the Professor coming in and Logan pulling Laura off of her. She let herself fall to the ground with no support and lay on the ground panting and feeling the power still well up inside.

"What's goin' on here?" demanded Logan. Claudine saw Laura waving around her arms and saw her lips moving rapidly, but she couldn't bring herself to hear the words. She lay there limply because she felt terrible; terrible that she had not killed her target in cold blood.

She looked up once again to see the Professor standing over her and asking what had happened, but she didn't answer back. She felt a tear slide down her face. "I don't belong with the others Professor. I'm not good like they are. I'm worse than what we fight against."

They eventually left and let her alone. The Professor reasoned that she needed time. This was all just too much stress on her. She needed training. He hadn't bothered to read her mind because he already had filled his up with an endless queue of excuses.

Claudine had decided in the morning that it would be most logical to go to the Professor for help. She decided that all's she needed was help. It had all been a combination of stress and her expanding powers. Maybe AP Chemistry could kill.

She stood outside of his office door for a long time. "Maybe I've gone insane," she thought to herself and resolved the question with, "probably," and knocked.

"Claudine, I have been expecting you," he smiled.

"Hello," she smiled back and stared into his eyes, "I tried to ignore it, Professor, but I can't anymore. It's dangerous. I don't know why I'm acting this way."

His face turned serious, "This serum is appears to be changing not just your physical state, but also your mental state. It is quite impressive that you have been able to ignore it for this long, Miss Renko." She felt her eyes well up with tears and a knot formed in her throat.

"You mean to say that this is me now?" she asked incredulously, "I hurt people. I manipulate them when I don't mean to. I don't want to be this way." She began to cry openly.

"Your mind is strong though," replied the professor, "I believe if you train hard enough you can control it."

"I shouldn't have to," she said quietly in a hard voice, "Can't you put a mental block up again, or something?"

"I'm sorry Claudine," he replied regretfully. She couldn't speak. The professor called out to her when she got up and ran out, knocking over the chair as she went.

"Whoa, vat's wrong?" asked Kurt to the sobbing girl. She didn't answer and brushed past him like he wasn't even there. She ran to her only safe haven and hoped that Mr. McCoy was busy somewhere else.


	13. Chapter 13

**Here's another chapter. I tried to fill it with like, cliché high school shit so enjoy. You guys are so shy! That's alright...**

"Vat's wrong with Claudine?" asked Kurt at dinner. No one had seen her for a good five hours and she hadn't come down for dinner.

"I'm not sure," shrugged Kitty, "She's been like, so quiet lately."

"Laura, do you know?" asked Jean. Laura didn't respond and went back to eating. The professor changed the subject.

Claudine wondered if anyone even noticed she was gone. They probably didn't. She guessed that everyone hated her and they were glad that she had disappeared.

"Are you happy now, Sinister!" she yelled to the white ceiling of the lab, "I'm just like you!"

"Claudine, are you in there," Mr. McCoy startled her into silence. She didn't reply.

"I want to talk to you," he tried again.

"I just want to be alone," she yelled back. She cursed herself. She had promised herself not to reply to anyone, but she had failed again because she secretly wanted the attention, all of her teammates coaxing her to try and get her out. She had wondered if they would care enough. This was just another selfish act to ensure her ego. She was disgusted with herself.

"I have your dinner."

"I don't want dinner."

"You have to eat."

"I don't deserve to eat."

"I know you're going through a difficult time in your life, but it will pass. I know how you feel, like you can't control yourself, that you don't want to hurt anyone."

She didn't reply and sat there in silence until she heard him sigh outside and walk away, leaving the tray at the door. She refused to give in to that generic speech on self-control and how everyone went through this. It was complete crap. No one went through this. If they did they were probably locked away in some mental institution. Her face must be under the antonym column for restraint in the dictionary.

Others came to talk to her and leave her food, like a caged animal, but of course she ignored them. She was trying to prove her self-control. They probably only came on the Professor's orders anyway, his faithful little pawns and if they came for the same reason they helped the humans, they were just as selfish as she was. This philosophy crap was not helping at all. She just wanted to feel raw emotion just for one time without having to filter it through logic. She allowed herself to scream and curse and send the whole room into a mess with her telekinesis. Her mental screams rang through everyone's heads in the building.

The next morning she woke up to a sharp knock on the door, "It's Laura. The Professor sent me. Let me in."

Claudine was surprised at first that she would follow an order such as that. Had she overestimated Laura? No, she wouldn't have come if the Professor had sent her. "Come in. The door has been unlocked this whole time."

"The way everyone talks, I could've sworn you had a dragon guarding this door or something."

"Once the mind has been set upon on thing, the principle is hardly ever tested."

"Professor told me to bring you this," she said, ignoring her last statement and holding out a burger."

"He didn't."

There was a long pause and the two girls stared at each other intently before Laura broke the silence, "You're right. I came here because I knew what it would take to make you come out."

"No one else could make me. What makes you so special?" she asked derisively.

"The same reason why you let me in and no one else."

"Shoot."

"You know what I'm going to say."

"Yes, and I don't believe it."

"Try me."

"You mean-

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Why should you trust me?"

"I don't and you don't. Let's kill two birds." Claudine slowly nodded and felt Laura open up her mind to her and let her inside. Before she could reach further into its recesses, a wave of reminiscence at first lapped at her toes and then devoured her.

_She had grown up in the lab, her first memory was when they had forced her into the blue liquid of the sealed tube. They had restrained her legs and her arms and left her to fight against the many needles they had forced into her skin straight through the bone. She felt pure hatred from them even though she hardly knew who they were. She knew that her mother was among them and that her father had left her here to suffer at the hands of Weapon X. _

_She had pleaded with her mother to let her go and escape this horrid place, but each time she had shook her head gravely and left her once again. Did her mother ever really love her? Laura did not know if she had ever loved. Now she found herself in the underground labs. She imagined what daylight would look like. She had never seen the sun before. She let go of her frustration and threw herself open for them and imagined the sun on her face._

_She tensed and shrieked in agony as the needles struck bone and drilled their way in. She struggled against the bonds even more when the burning liquid adamatium was infused to bone and cooled against her blood. Her body healed itself as they inflicted more torturous minutes of pain on her already screaming flesh and blood. _

_Years later she still remembered their faces and how they smiled at her agony. Her mother had run away in tears. She was weak; something that Laura couldn't allow herself to be. She was reminded often of her father and how ruthless, strong, and terrible he was. As she buried her indestructible claws into another training dummy she imagined it was him, Wolverine. This was his fault; that she was alive. She had pressed the cold adamatium to her flesh many times and pressed as hard as she could. She laughed when she broke the flesh and felt the warm blood trickle down her chest. She knew it was inferior as she felt the wound closing up under the blade. The buzz of electricity through her body snapped her back to the task at hand. She remembered once again that she wasn't a person, but a weapon at the disposal of her masters._

_She was the ultimate weapon and she knew that she could be deemed useless in a second. She didn't have a name; just a code. Her name was X-23. She lived from day to day, one running into the next. Sometimes they wiped her mind of all recollection and it would leave her a savage killer once again without a mind or memories. Among the few pieces that she grasped onto was the name given to her once by her mom; Laura. It didn't suit her. She started to believe Weapon X. Maybe she really didn't deserve a name._

_Then they had killed her mother. It didn't really matter how or why, just that it happened and X-23 was there to see it. They shot her right in front of her. The only person to show any compassion, as feeble as it may have been was gone. She had dropped to her knees and wept as she had never done before. Her 'handlers' had given her a shock in response to this behavior, but she stayed on the floor crying until they threw her back in her cell. She sobbed for a long time and looked back at her life, devoid of happiness and realized the meaning of it all. That day she decided she would take down Weapon X if it killed her. _

Claudine gasped and tore her mind away to once again become a separate entity. She slowly backed away from Laura who smiled.

"Consider us even."

"Why did you show this to me?"

"I've felt you trying to get into my mind before, trying to figure me out. Weapon X didn't just teach me how to kill. Now let's get out of here.

Claudine nodded and allowed herself to follow Laura as blindly as she could permit herself. Laura hopped into the driver's seat of Scott's corvette and Claudine sat in the passenger's side.

"Do you have a license?" she asked X23.

"Nope."

"For once I'm actually glad that Sinister gave me this healing factor."

For once she saw Laura laugh as they sped out of the garage, knocking over two trash cans as they went. Claudine hadn't an idea where they were going. She simply laid back and let Laura call the shots. She didn't want to have control. They ended up at Bayville High, the opposite of what she had expected. They sat in the bleachers where they could have a full view off the cheerleaders practicing their routines for the coming football game. She knew it was going to be a big game even though she had no idea who they were playing. Mutants weren't allowed to participate in sports anyway. It was Kelly's rule.

"Why did you tell Kelly on that first day that we were mutants? I could have gotten us out of it easily," questioned Claudine, breaking the silence.

"Why should you care what that asshole thinks of us?"

"I guess you have a point."

The cheerleaders below were very aware of their presence and shot them glaring looks. Claudine didn't want to admit that she was afraid of them. They were worse than the Brotherhood and they wore cherry lip balm. Laura noticed her looking down at the girls.

"Why are you so afraid of them? It's not like they can rip your throat out like most of the people we fight on a daily basis."

"You're right. They can't, but they have other means. I don't know why but words have always hurt me more than physical stress."

Laura laughed, "Words can't do a damn thing if you don't let them." There was another lull in their conversation as they watched the cheerleaders botch another routine and fall to the ground.

"So," began Laura again, "who is this 'Sinister'?"

Claudine hesitated and felt her body tense with hatred of the word, "My father. He's the one that made me this way."

"Wow, major family drama," joked Laura.

"I was born in England, a long time ago…" she found herself confessing everything the girl and she found Laura actually listening. She concluded with, "I'm terrified every day that he might come back and take me away from here and I'll be just as evil as he is."

Laura simply nodded.

"What are you?" asked Claudine suddenly like she had to know, "Are you the devil here to bring me to justice?"

"No," she replied and grinned.

"Good. I've never believed in God," smiled Claudine.

Claudine was suddenly aware of Laura's tense body and her grimace of worry. Was it worry? She felt as if she could sit right here for a lifetime. She felt like herself again.

"Thank you again," she said.

Laura got up and offered her hand, "You ready to go? We have a training session at one."

"As ready as I'll ever be."


	14. Chapter 14

"Where is she?" snarled Wolverine impatiently. Everyone else had been there early or at least on time. Laura was never late even though she did give him hell in those early morning sessions. She had been getting better and better in these last few practices. He was beginning to think of adding her to the Professor's special group.

"Here we are," panted Claudine, running in with Laura in front of her. Both were in costume and ready to go, but no one had expected Claudine. They all cheered that Claudine had come and she felt a wave of gratitude. They did care about her. She looked around to see almost everyone was there, except for Scott and Jean, but they were always out on dates or doing something better. The last time they had come to a session was last week. The bell sounded almost immediately after they had run in, signifying the start of the drill.

"So, what are we doing this time?" asked Claudine eagerly.

"We're supposed to get to the switch to turn off the room," replied Kurt, "and it's a race to the end with a partner."

She looked at Laura with a grin of understanding and tensed their bodies in anticipation. As the bell rang they were the first ones to start.

"This will be totally easy," smiled Claudine.

"Piece of cake."

X-23's eyes opened wide as she threw herself at Claudine, knocking her to the floor just before she was crushed under a pile of rubble.

"Sure, piece of cake. Thanks."

Claudine ignored the annoyed cries of the rest of the team as she telepathically placed the pile in their way.

X-23 slashed the live wires as Claudine provided a psychic shield to the oncoming razor disks.

Laura suddenly looked up, her sensitive ears detecting the whirring of new gears under their feet. "New obstacle coming up!" she shouted to her partner.

"It would be helpful if I knew what to look for!" yelled Claudine back sarcastically.

A wall of slick metal arose in front of them out of the floor. Claudine groaned, but Laura sunk her claws into the metal and began to climb, "Come on slow poke!"

Claudine had an idea. She had seen Jean levitate using her powers before, so why couldn't she? She had never actually tried before, but Laura had seen her do it in her sleep before. She closed her eyes and pictured herself hovering over the wall. She felt the pressure of the floor under her feet disappear and opened her eyes to see the ceiling not far above her. Her only concern now was how to land.

"Ok," she told herself as calmly as possible, "now maybe if I just picture myself coming to the ground then… No not falling! Oh shit!"

She screamed and let out a hiccup as she hit the floor. It was harder than she had remembered. Laura hopped down from the side of the wall and nearly fell to the ground laughing at her pathetic attempt at a landing.

"I'm still learning!" protested Claudine.

"Alright baby bird, come on. Bobby and Kurt aren't far behind us. I can hear them just on the other side."

Claudine rolled her eyes and lifted her body off the ground, only to feel a piercing pain in her leg. "Ow!" she moaned and fell to the floor again, "I think I broke my leg, but don't worry. It should heal in a few minutes."

"We don't have a few minutes," replied X-23 hurriedly, pointing at Bobby and Kurt who had just took and ice slide over the wall.

"Alright, I'll just tell my leg to heal a bit faster," she mumbled in pain, trying to be funny. She felt the bone shifting back into place but it would be too late. She remembered her incident with Laura the night before and had an idea.

Kurt was about to finally win. He had waited so long for the day when he could show everyone that the fuzzy man was up to the challenge. He saw Bobby fall to the ground in front of him and grasp his head. "What are y-

He too fell to the ground when the voice intruded into his head, "_You boys deserve a rest. You should both take a nap right now. Sleep now." _He was about to protest to the disembodied voice when he felt his eyelids getting heavier and his eyes slowly closing. "So tired," Bobby yawned to him before falling asleep also.

X-23 looked in shock at Claudine, "What did you just do?"

She smiled and got up, no longer holding her leg in agony, "People will really do anything if you ask nicely enough."

Laura's combat boots pounded on the ground as they ran for the switch. Claudine cautioned her to leap over the boys on their way. Logan would be so proud of her. She felt triumphant as both her and Claudine's hands hit the switch and put everything in the room back to its normal resting position.

"Nice job partner," smiled Claudine as they high fived in triumph, "Sorry about the shaky landing."

"It better not happen again or I'm being partners with Kitty next time!" she joked.

"Nice job you two," congratulated Logan, if you could call the low growl and head nod a congratulations, "Never thought I would see ya working together."

"Yup," smiled Laura at Claudine knowingly.

Bobby slowly walked over to them, in a sort of stupor, "What happened?"

"You fell asleep," replied Claudine as she turned to go back to her room.


	15. Chapter 15

"Are you sure about this?" asked Claudine uneasily, but in a hard tone.

"Of course," replied Laura with a smile, "If I weren't sure would I let you try a deadly stunt like this?"

"Yes, and that's why this worries me."

"Oh well," shrugged Laura and aimed the revolver, "Ready…Aim…Fire." With that she pulled the trigger and loosed the bullet at her target; Claudine.

Claudine didn't have time to wonder how she got into this mess right now. Her only chance was in her telekinetic powers. Laura was way more confident in her abilities than she was. She quickly forced all other thoughts out of her mind and focused her energy on the single speeding bullet. Her muscles tensed as though she were lifting a heavy weight. She strained herself until she felt the object stop midway in its path. She let it clang to the ground.

"I did it," she said incredulously, "I stopped a bullet with my mind!"

"See, I told ya so," grinned Laura.

"Oh, so now 'I call that watch in your will' counts as words of encouragement?"

She playfully shoved Laura into a wall in response. "_I should so make you start hitting yourself right about now," _thought Claudine to which Laura laughed.

Laura had been her training partner for a week now. She secretly didn't want the Professor to intervene. She was afraid of what he might uncover if he reached her innermost thoughts. She was able to control her new thoughts for the most part but she still found herself haunted and guarded around her teammates. They all thought she was funny and a bit airheaded, and she didn't want them to find her out. The less people know about you truly, the better. Laura was the only exception and she knew that she was Laura's only exception. She loved the Professor and all, but sometimes his views were a bit too stifling. She felt tied in his aspiration to make peace with a race who hated them and aspired to destroy them. She felt as if he shouldn't place a burden of that magnitude on a few teens. After all, an organism is only a chamber of chemical reactions. The acts that are so called altruistic are not predisposed to their nature. One's primal instincts of procreation and survival are to always be at the forefront of all decision. Xavier was the kind of man who would call this philosophy morbid, but it was only truthful. Why should they help these other creatures in the race for evolutionary supremacy? Maybe it was about time for the humans' reign over the Earth to end. She worked in the lab late that night. She had agreed to help Dr. McCoy that night. He didn't have to ask her really because she would always say yes. She was a sucker for petri dishes and microscopes. She hesitated to tell even him these thoughts.

She shrugged away her doubts before closing her eyes. She figured school the next day would take them from her brain anyhow. It was ironic how mind numbing high school could be and Principal Kelly really didn't make it any better.

_Beep Beep Beep. _Claudine found herself jolted out of a dreamless sleep not by the usual alarm, but by the emergency bell. She figured that this was just another one of the Professor's drills. She rolled her eyes and shook Laura awake (carefully).

"Ugh, what is it?" she mumbled, still half asleep.

"Get on your uniform. I think the Prof's scheduled a drill this morning."

"You think?" protested Laura, "I've gotta be sure before I get out of this bed."

"Fine," sighed Claudine and mentally scanned the mansion for signs of life. She was immediately met with feelings of panic and anxiety. "Yup, I'm pretty sure."

She practically had to drag Laura from her bed, but eventually they got downstairs with uniforms on and ready to go.

"Iceman reporting for duty," mock saluted Bobby.

"This is serious," replied Cyclops with his usual hard façade. Claudine stopped yawning and suddenly looked up in alarm.

"Scott is right," said the Professor wheeling in, "I'm afraid that there has been a new mutant signal picked up by Cerebro. I'm afraid it is hostile and may be tied to the kidnappings."

Scott cut in, "And I'll be leading an elite group of students to meet this new threat." Claudine rolled her eyes to Laura who giggled. _And I bet we'll be left home again._

She turned around to go back to sleep when Jean called out to her, "Laura, Claudine, you're coming with us."

Claudine secretly cheered in her head. She had told herself that she hadn't wanted to be on their stupid team anyway, but she realized she had been hoping for this call. She tried to play it as cool as she possibly could. This time she mock saluted, "Reporting to kick some ass." _ I'm_ _never saying that again._

**_Enjoy? Yes? No? Maybe? Somewhat? Perhaps? Absolutely? A Positively Negative? Whatever... _**


	16. Chapter 16

Claudine stared down at her white hands and clenched them into fists. Her eyes glowed red as they did when she felt the raw power coursing through her veins. She was ready for this fight. This is what she had been training for. The opponent was unknown and therefore had an advantage, but it was eight against one; her, Kitty, Rogue, Bobby, Scott, Jean, Laura, and Kurt. She guessed that the Professor had wanted to dry run the new and unsupervised team with an easy mission.

The X Van halted to a stop, signifying that they were about to see some action.

"You ready?" smiled Laura.

"Of course."

They got out and found themselves on main-street, right next to the high school.

"School's out," grinned Bobby who was met with severe looks. "What? Somebody had to say it."

Scott stared ahead at the hulking figure coming fast towards them, "It's Sabretooth!"

Claudine had never heard of him…or her…or that before, yet she got chills down her spine to think of a mutant who could psych out, well… Cyclops. She tensed for action. Scott stood at the front of their formation and blasted the oncoming assailant. She gasped to see Sabretooth walking towards them through the power beam. No one had ever done that before.

With one swipe Sabretooth knocked Scott out of the way and slashed through them like they were ragdolls. "Well, well, well. I see Logan was too much of a coward to come himself," snarled Sabretooth, "looks like I'll have to settle for you school kids."

"I bet you can't catch me," mocked Kurt as her inched closer to the man.

Sabretooth let out a guttural sound and grabbed for the blue elf who of course bamphed out of the way.

"I'll get you, kid," growled the cat man and again snatched at Nightcrawler.

"You need to cool down!" Bobby recited and surprise attacked him from behind, leaving the man temporarily stuck in ice.

"Seriously Bobby," groaned Rogue, taking off her glove, "Enough with the cheesy punch lines."

"Ready to take a nice long nap?" grinned Rogue to the man trapped in ice. She suddenly screamed in agony as he twisted out of his icy trap and threw her away before she could drain any of his power.

_This guy surely isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, or should I say the sharpest tooth in the mouth? Damn you Bobby! He may be tough on the outside, but maybe I can break him down mentally. _

Claudine held both hands out to focus her power on Sabretooth, probing his mind for a way in. It was like Logan's or Laura's. He must have had some mental training againt psychic attacks. She closed her eyes tighter and focused her energy ever more. She was almost getting through. She could feel the chink in the armor growing wider…

"Look out!" screamed X-23, knocking her to the ground and nearly evading the Sabretooth's sharp claws.

"Thanks," panted Claudine, "I feel like a psychic attack on him would wear him down if I could get close enough.

"Alright," said Laura reluctantly.

"Hey, furball!" she mocked and ran the opposite way of Claudine.

It worked. Claudine took a run for him while she still had the chance. She knew she could do it. She was getting stronger with each day. She closed her eyes tightly and spread her hands out, releasing the psychic energy. She felt the red diamond on her forehead growing brighter.

"Look out!" yelled Laura. Sabretooth had loosed himself from her grip and was running for Claudine.

"Oh Shit!"

She opened her eyes just in time to see the man leaping towards her. She felt her helpless body being thrown through the air and was eventually met with a crashing noise. _Damn it!_

She ended up through the school wall. _Oh great, am I supposed to pay for this now._ She confirmed with herself that this was definitely not good. Not only did she wreck the science wing, but she also left her teammates to deal with Sabretooth. She cursed herself for underestimating him. She tried to heave herself off the ground and was immediately met with a sharp pain in her leg. _Another broken bone, seriously?_

She looked up thinking she heard a noise. Through the hole in the wall she saw a yellow Bayville High school bus pull up to the demolished building. She looked from her white skin down to her skintight purple uniform and sighed in anguish. _And this day keeps getting worse and worse. _She knew that the bone hadn't quite healed yet, but she had to get out of there. She couldn't let anyone see her like this. Kelly would flip. She scrambled to her feet and limped to the front door, using the wall as support.

She burst out the door and nearly tripped down the stairs. She let out a slight "hi" to the crowd of students all staring at her. It seemed like forever before anyone actually had the nerve to say anything. _I hate my life, but calm down. Maybe they won't recognize you without your image inducer. _

She stared at the crowd as they shouted hateful insults and pushed her up against the door. They still didn't seem to know it was her though, so that was a plus side, and she was finally being noticed although not in the way she had wanted to be…

She heard a murmur from the crowd, "Hey, is that the new girl?"

"Yeah, I think so. Claudine, right."

"OMG She's in my chemistry class."

"What a freak!"

She cringed against the words as if they were stones being thrown at her and with each blow she got weaker and weaker. She began to tear up, but then remembered what Laura had told her. She tried to calculate if she could erase this many memories, but resolved that she couldn't. Besides, this was the least of her problems right now. She remembered Sabretooth.

She waved her arms in a frantic gesture, "You have to get out of here everyone! It's not safe!"

They all ignored her and she saw the football team yell out, "Get outta here mutie!" She shook her head in frustration. _Why does nobody ever listen to me? _She threw her hands down in exasperation and telekinetically pushed the crowd backwards. "Sorry guys, just need to get back to getting my ass kicked." Claudine once again heard the yells of hatred. "On second thought, I'm really not sorry."

"Where have you been?" demanded Scott.

"Oh, you know. Just got thrown through a wall and everything. Thanks for the concern," she spat back. She looked around and found that Sabretooth was gone.

"Sabretooth already left," replied Laura, knowing what she was wondering.

She nodded her head and stared at the ground, thinking again of the gaping hole in the school and all of the students.

"The Professor wants to have a meeting in the conference room," reported Scott to the rest of the team, feeling a sense of dread.


	17. Chapter 17

The Professor focused his gray eyes on each of his precious X Men. They thought that they had succeeded in their mission, but he knew they had hardly scratched the surface. Now they knew what they were up against. The Brotherhood was nothing compared to their new mission. "As you all know Sabretooth is just the beginning. While probing his mind I have discovered a new power signal."

"What do you mean Professor?" questioned Scott.

"Sabretooth is no longer working under Magneto. He has a new, possibly more powerful master. These kidnappings have been carefully planned out. We must stay vigilant. For now on practice will be more intensive and frequent in light of these events. That is all."

Each one of his students gravely nodded and turned to prepare themselves for the coming school day.

"Yes Claudine?" asked the Professor, turning to the girl remaining in the room.

"Professor…I…I may have accidently broke the school."

"Yes, I know. I have already arranged for the repairs to be made."

"But all the humans saw me. Shall I stay home today?"

"No. You must face the world of adversity. You have been prepared well and this is only one challenge of many to come."

She turned away to get ready but doubled back, "I have a bad feeling about this new master, Professor. When I was in his head I sensed it also. It seems too…familiar."

"I'm afraid there is nothing we can do at the moment except for prepare."

Laura had been throwing her notebooks haphazardly in her bag when Claudine came in.

"How'd it go?"

"Fine."

Just by the tone of her voice, Laura could tell that everything wasn't okay. The last time she had seen Claudine like this was in the lab.

"You're definitely not fine."

"Yes. I am," she replied in a cold tone and lay down on her bed, putting on her image inducer, returning her appearance back to 'normal.'

Claudine felt bad that she was so indifferent to Laura's offers. She knew that Laura was doing her best to cheer her up in her own way.

"I packed up your bag," said Laura weakly, "I know it's probably not the way you like it but-

"Thanks," she smiled. She took the bag and proceeded to take all of her things out again.

Laura rolled her eyes, "You're such a perfectionist."

"I prefer scientist. They're really the same thing you know, and the pens go in the smallest pocket to the left, not the right."

She once again rolled her eyes playfully, "You're gonna make us late."

"I'm ready," replied Claudine, throwing the bag over her shoulder.

She was nervous about facing the entire school since the entire 'destroying part of the school' thing, but she shrugged it off. Plus who gives a fuck, right?

Apparently everyone in her calculus class gave tons of fucks. They all gasped in disgust and whispered as she walked in with her usual black combat boots and ripped jeans. Some even asked to be excused. She shrugged in mock confusion and sat down. "I'm sorry that I am so late," she addressed the open mouthed teacher, "I just got a little caught up elsewhere and, well you know."

The teacher soon resumed her lesson in a shaky voice, often turning around to check if Claudine had somehow killed the entire rest of the class.

"She's a mutie?" came whispers from some of the boys behind her.

"Yeah, didn't ya hear about this morning?"

"Dude, she's kinda hot…what?"

She turned around, causing the boys to fall silent, "I know what you're thinking and the answer is no." She ignored everyone for the rest of the day, making sarcastic comments every now and then. Who cares what the humans think? They were all intellectually and genetically inferior anyway. She laughed silently to herself, thinking of everyone's looks of fear as if she were some sort of deadly snake. "_Oh yes, I could be pure poison."_

"May I use the bathroom?" asked Claudine halfway through history class. She couldn't stand all of the whispers and glares anymore.

"Um…Miss Renko um…sure," stammered her history teacher as if she would go into a fit of rage and destroy the school.

She nodded absently and stood up. They had been talking about civil rights. _How ironic. _

_ "__Do you want me to come with you?" _thought Laura who sat beside her.

_"__I just need some time to think." _Laura nodded in understanding and turned back around.

She hurried out of the classroom and almost immediately bumped into a boy who shared some classes with her. He had been nice and everything. She couldn't recall his name though. "Sorry," she apologized. She reached down to help him with his books and was surprised to see him glaring at her.

"Get away from me, freak," he spat in her face and ran in the opposite direction.

"You're welcome!" she called after him. She hung her head in embarrassment. _I guess no matter how much I ignore this it'll never go away. I'll always be a freak. _She kicked the door to the girl's room open. Luckily it was empty. She caught a glimpse of her 'normal' self in the mirror and felt disgusted. She threw off the image inducer in anger. _Why me? As though my life needed more complications._ She vaguely remembered her old more simple life before she gained her powers; her gift. Sometimes it didn't feel like a gift though. Thanks to Sabretooth the whole school knew she was a freak.

She looked up and nearly screamed. She didn't see her reflection. She only saw an image of her father…Sinister.

"What are you doing here!" she spat furiously.

"I have told you before child," it replied.

Her mind went back to the dreams and how he said that they were the same, she was Sinister. "And I've told you before!"

"Ah, no need for anger my daughter, you will soon realize that we need each other."

"Maybe you need me, but I certainly don't need you!" she yelled back. She smashed in the glass with her fist. The broken reflection only laughed as it had in her half forgotten nightmares. She ran out before he could say anything else to try to manipulate her. _Oh no, I must be going crazy._

She returned to her last period of the day looking shaken and pale.

_"__Are you okay?" _thought Laura.

"_Yeah, just peachy." _


	18. Chapter 18

"You sure you're fine?" asked Laura.

"Yes!" exclaimed Claudine, "I. Am. Fine."

"Alright, alright," said Laura putting her hands out in defeat. They had just finished up their second DR session of the day. The Professor had already started working everyone to death and it didn't get any better in the next few days. Claudine could tell from the snippets of thought that she could catch that he was more worried than ever before.

One week flowed into another of training and school. Claudine's nightmares had gotten increasingly worse and had become a nightly occurrence. She began to stay up for nights on end and often filled the time by mentally wandering around the mansion. One night after a particularly jarring dream she sensed something awry in the mansion; Rogue's presence was gone. She had gone to her room and had seen that her abilities had proven right. Rogue's disappearances in the dead of night grew more frequent, but sure enough, every morning she would be back in the mansion. She had asked Kitty if she had noticed anything strange about Rogue lately, but apparently Kitty was a sounder sleeper than she had first thought.

"Like, no. She always goes to bed the same time as me and wakes up the same time as me," replied Kitty, "Why?"

"No reason."

The rest of the week passed rather uneventfully other than the few things Claudine had found awry. She had begun to get suspicious that they had not seen Sabretooth again in the last couple of days, but she shrugged it off. _I guess we scared that furball off._

She went to bed Saturday night after watching a horror movie with the rest of the team. Laura and her had laughed at all the gory parts that Scott and Jean cringed about.

"You guys are such wimps," teased Laura.

"Your genes are a great match though," added Claudine which led to Kurt and Bobby singing about Scott and Jean kissing in a tree. It was one of the few nights that the Professor had allowed them a break from training.

She lay down in her soft sheets and closed her eyes as tight as she could. _She could see his eyes through hers. She didn't know how she had gotten there or how she would get out. His canines glinted in the harsh light of the lab. _

_ "__You didn't think I could let my greatest experiment go without a few tests."_

_ "__I'm not yours or anyone else's for that matter."_

_ "__Is that so?" he grinned maliciously and displayed an array of microtome blades, forceps, and probes; tools for dissection._

_ "__What are you doing?" she asked squirming on the table._

_ "__I'm afraid my experiment has been tainted. I no longer have any use for you."_

She awoke to the sound of the emergency bell. She wiped the sweat from her brow and got up with a start.

"Well, this is the first sleep I've got in days-or is it nights? And why the hell is the alarm ringing?" asked Claudine grumpily to her roommate. Even a restless nightmare filled sleep was better than what she had been getting. She was sadly getting used to these graphic dreams.

"How am I supposed to know? Do I look psychic or something?" Laura smiled and got into her uniform.

Claudine shook her head and groggily slipped on her skintight uniform and ran out to the hallway. She sensed something-a mental signal. It was foreign to her, so definitely not part of the institute. Without thinking she ran to the signal. _It should be right down this hallway-_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Laura, "Where are you going!"

"Nowhere,' she called back absent-mindedly as she turned the corner. The signal was getting stronger-she was getting closer. She saw a dark angular figure in the distance.

_"__Stop!" _she mentally yelled to the intruder. She was surprised to see that it still didn't stop-the intruder must have had strong mental training, but it seemed as if some sort of barrier was blocking her manipulation. _Fine then, I'll just have to take different measures._

With a flick of her wrist she knocked the carpet out from the ground causing her opponent to fall to the ground. She laughed.

"_I see you have some psychic defense training. Now, who are you?"_

She telekinetically pinned the intruder against the wall-it was a male. He spat at the ground and looked up at her, sneering. His glowing eyes seemed…familiar. It was strange to recognize someone she had never met before.

"Who are you?" she began to say, but was cut off when he threw a small glowing object at her which exploded upon contact with the floor, throwing her the wall.

She cursed , and then got up to pursue him. She rounded the next corner of the hallway only to find the window open and the strange, familiar man gone. She cursed her carelessness.

"Vhat happened?" asked Kurt, along with the rest of the team who found her sitting on the hallway floor.

"I let the intruder escape," she spat.

"Where is he? I'll- Bobby yelled.

"You're a little late for that," said Scott sternly, "Next time an emergency bell rings act like it's an emergency."

Claudine got up from the floor and watched the whole thing play out silently. She knew that Scott blamed himself above all others, but she knew it was her fault. What had she been thinking? It was all on a whim really.

She noticed that through all the discussion Rogue who was usually a huge part of the team, stayed silent and sullen throughout. Claudine tried to get a read on her, but couldn't with all the other energies she carried from her victims. Jean said some words of encouragement to her which she ignored and then went back to the room.

**Any ideas for pairings for Claudine? Suggestions are welcome. No guarantees though. I'm still playing around with the idea. **


	19. Chapter 19

There was blood all over the bathroom floor, but that was okay because the others were outside. She was safe. Claudine was at least out for another hour and no one else was going to burst into the bathroom.

It was a Saturday, the day when all the rest of Laura's teammates took their minds off things like the events of two days ago, but not her. She couldn't afford to relax.

She faintly smiled to see the deep red liquid gush out of her wrists. She hit a major artery, but it was nothing that hadn't happened before. She hadn't done this since her stay in Weapon X. She forgot how alive it made her feel. The artery would heal in a matter of seconds anyway. It was no big deal. With each gash she made with her adamantium claws she remembered another biting phrase of her past; that she could never be human, that she was an animal incapable of emotion. She started to believe them. She wondered to herself why she was so worried about someone walking in. They probably wouldn't care anyway. She was just a monster anyhow, incapable of emotion and socialization. She closed her eyes tighter and let it flow out…

"What the hell are you doing?" Laura's ritual was disturbed by Claudine who threw down her shopping bags and ran over to her friend.

Laura snarled at her and slammed the bathroom door closed, "None of your fucking business!" She let her claws slide back into her skin and she began immediately to feel the sting of guilt. She reminded herself that she was supposed to be incapable of emotion and sat against the door. She felt the door being ripped off its hinges.

"Great, now you made me ruin the door," replied Claudine.

"I made you ruin the door? This is none of your business. Just leave me alone!" snarled Laura back. Her wrists had healed without any trace of a scar.

"Yes it is," asserted Claudine, sitting down beside her, "and now it's my turn to ask what's wrong."

"This is mine to deal with," Laura replied a bit softer and stood up.

_I know what you've been doing to yourself, Laura. I saw it just now and let me tell you, if you ever do that again I will put you in a very long coma._

_So now you're angry with me too. I didn't ask you._

_Would it kill you to take the hint that I actually give a fuck about your safety? You're more than just my roommate after all._

_Well maybe you shouldn't. I'm not worth it anyway. I was raised to be a killer. I'm a weapon, not a person who you can talk to and comfort. I'm done pretending I can be better than what I am. I'm not worth your pity._

_You know nothing of me if you think I pity you. I respect you too much for a feeling reserved for the weak. I hate seeing you this way. It hurts me._

_I've already shown you my weakness by having this little pity party._

_What you call weakness I call emotion, the thing that does make you a person._

Laura stared into Claudine's eyes mesmerized at the girl who actually cared for her. She felt tears well up in her eyes and she turned away, not wanting to show any more weakness. She turned her face to the pillow and lay down in silence.

"Why do you care about me" she asked in a stoic tone, "out of all the others you could care for?"

"I don't know," confessed Claudine, "but I like that you fight it all, knowing you'll lose. It's…hard to explain."

Laura stared at her porcelain white skin and reached out to touch her just to see if Claudine was real. That was the only reason, she told herself for a second time. She was met by her cold hands.

"You're not alone in your experiences Laura," replied Claudine in her soft yet hard voice.

Suddenly the buzz of the emergency drill penetrated the silence of the room, causing both girls to jump.

"Ugh! Another emergency drill?" exclaimed Claudine.

"Uh…yeah," said Laura, "We better get our uniforms on."

When they got downstairs Claudine wasn't surprised to see an obvious absence of Scott and Jean, "Are the two love birds not at practice again?"

A few students chuckled, but then turned their attention back to the Professor.

"I am glad to say that this afternoon the emergency alarm went off for a drill which went very smoothly. In light of the past few weeks we will have to train harder. Cerebro senses that something big is happening."

Rogue wondered if it was Apocalypse big. She was worried that Jean and Scott had neglected so many practices. It wasn't like them. Plus, if they weren't here for a real emergency then she would have to be field leader. She couldn't handle yet another factor in her screwed up life.

"Is everything alright?" asked Kitty from behind her. Rogue didn't answer and ran back to the room.

"Jeez, like, what's wrong with her?" asked Kitty aloud and let out a sigh of frustration.

Claudine had known that something was up. She just didn't know what…

**Suggestions still open.**


	20. Chapter 20

Claudine and Laura sat by the television. Claudine was working out a nasty calc problem while Laura sharpened her claws and Kurt got yet another snack out of the pantry. Jean and Scott weren't home on the account that they were off being a couple elsewhere (at least that was what Laura predicted they would be off doing). They hadn't even been at the Danger Room sessions. Everyone else had made themselves scarce on that particular afternoon, wanting to avoid another of Logan's infamous training sessions. For uptight goody two shoes, Scott and Jean sure did miss a lot of practices to bolster their relationship. The apparent 'substitute field leader' wasn't doing that great a job either.

Laura began to flip through the channels, bored of the program she had been watching. The news channel came on; "This is Bayville's own Robert Kelly telling you to vote Kelly for mayor. The mutant crisis rages on and-

Laura quickly switched off the television, practically gagging on hatred. It was hard enough being a mutant in Bayville High, but to have that be brought to the whole town seemed unbearable.

Laura started to close her eyes groggily when the emergency bell began to ring yet again.

"This better be something good," Laura heard Kurt mutter. The chaos around the mansion began distinctly more prevalent as the X Men got on their assorted uniforms and readied anything else needed for a potential combat situation.

"Do you think it's another drill?" asked Laura, rolling her eyes.

"I don't think so," said Claudine nervously, "I'm getting a read that is much graver than the normal drill read on the mansion."

They jogged down to the meeting room, unaware of what had happened over the past few hours, and reeling to find out.

Based on the seemingly innate chatter that spanned the room, everyone else was quite puzzled as well.

"X Men, this is what you have been training for," said the Professor, shutting the room up, "Both of our field leaders, Cyclops and Marvel Girl have been kidnapped. I have already chosen some of our best students to go on this crucial rescue mission. This is not a drill."

Claudine heard a few gasps from the group and whispers. Rogue stepped forward and faced them, "I guess I'll be leadin' this mission," drawled Rogue, nervously.

Laura rolled her eyes and signaled Claudine to leave with her. She knew that the Professor's pets would be on the rescue team.

"And since two of our key members are absent at present, I have chosen X 23 and Claudine to go in their place," added the Professor.

Laura and Claudine looked at each other and nodded, smiling. This is what they had been looking forward to all year.

Rogue signaled the team onto the jet. Claudine strapped in and grimaced. The stakes were high and she mustn't fail the Professor. She could be part of the team and she could save her teammates.

Kurt was sitting in the driver's seat. It was his first time actually flying the jet for an official mission. He looked forward solemnly. Scott was like a brother to him. He couldn't fail them after all they had done for him…not now, "Everyone hold on tight."

They took off with a speed that Claudine had never felt before. It seemed as though there were butterflies in her stomach. She had never been in the air like this before. Were mutants really supposed to fly? She felt like she had just eaten one of Kitty's cupcakes.

"Is everyone alright back zhere?" asked Kurt.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," replied Claudine.

Rogue shushed her, "don't ya see the Professor's tryin' to focus?" Claudine huffed, but held her need for a paper bag to herself. Prof. Xavier was kind of like their human GPS on this mission, tracking Scott and Jean's whereabouts via brainwaves and sending them to Kurt telepathically. Claudine felt her palms getting sweaty. She was anxious for her first big mission. There were high stakes and she didn't want to screw it up somehow. She coldly thought to herself that no one bothered to teach her to track brain waves, but she had to keep her mind on the mission at hand. She felt bad that she didn't really care about the whole 'Scott and Jean are missing' thing. She had never really felt anything towards them, and just had gone on the mission to earn her place on the permanent team.

"Ve are almost zhere," Kurt alerted them. Claudine took a deep breath to compose herself and massaged her temples as Laura sharpened her claws.

Claudine was surprised that they had such a smooth landing. She was at least expecting a crash landing or something cool like in the movies, but so far the island seemed unpopulated. Bobby froze a ramp down from the jet, but Claudine preferred to lower herself down with her telekinesis rather than slide down clumsily. Laura had simply jumped down, landing gracefully like a cat…

The Professor suddenly grabbed his head, "The signal…it's cut out completely…"

She didn't like how this sounded and felt a certain buzzing in her ears. "I think I know where we'll find Scott and Jean," she surprised herself by saying.

"Professor, you can stay here," assured Rogue who then began to follow Claudine with some uncertainty. What if she was wrong? What if this was some sort of trap? As field leader she had to take risks though, and if it meant following the younger girl into the woods then so be it. At least Claudine seemed to have an idea where the hell she was going.

"I've had this feeling before," Claudine mumbled. She had it in her dreams…

She followed the signal as it got louder and louder in her mind. She instinctively knew that she was about to come across something big. Sure enough, in the hazy distance she could make out the shape of a building of some sort. She knew this couldn't be good. A building on a deserted island? Never good.

"They're in there," she said, pointing to it.

"So, who wants to go into the big spooky abandoned building in the middle of nowhere first?" asked Bobby apprehensively.

No one answered until finally Kurt sighed, "Fine, I'll go in first." Claudine heard him BAMF into the decrepit edifice.

Claudine went next, being the sole telekinetic on the team at the moment. She moved the various pieces of rubble from the entranceway and gave them the thumbs up, "It's a real dump in here, but it's safe beside the Hephaestus problem."

"Guys, I think I found zhem!" called Kurt from behind a closed door.

"_Really? It was that easy?" _thought Laura.

"You're not fooling anyone," whispered Claudine, "You are disappointed."

Laura glared at her for her telepathy and followed the others through the hospital looking door.

"Wow!" exclaimed Claudine at the sight of the lab inside this antiquated building, "Someone was having some real fun in here."

Laura rolled her eyes as Claudine practically drooled over the various equipment. She saw Kurt and Rogue standing over two bodies shackled to the tables in the corner of the room. Rogue yelled for her to come help. She groaned and unsheathed her claws, slashing the bonds. At least she got hear one SNIKT sound on this mission.

"Zhey are unconscious, but still breazhing," said Kurt, relieved, "Whoever vas here must have made a quick escape."

"Hey, you coming?" called Laura back to Claudine. She was supposed to be helping the others get their two unconscious team leaders to the jet.

"Yeah, just go without me…I'll be there in a few." Laura nodded and uneasily left Claudine to ogle over the lab.

Claudine felt glad that everyone had left. Now she could truly be alone. _What is the purpose of this? Who built it and who could even use these tools properly? And why Scott and Jean? Why now? _ She had so many questions. It just wasn't adding up. It was like an old episode of Scooby Doo minus the talking dog, but they did have Bobby. She shivered and began to walk out. This place was totally creepy plus the team was probably waiting for her. They had to get Scott and Jean to the infirmary ASAP. She took one last look at the lab and saw something bright red out of the corner of her eye.

"Hello, what are you?" she mused out loud. She picked up the red notebook and brushed off the dust from the caved in roof. The cover was blank. She speculated it was probably a log. She opened it to find the pages all blank. She flipped through it until she spotted black scrawling handwriting. _Who uses ink and quill nowadays?_ "The Inferno is spreading," she read aloud. The words tumbled out of her lips and hit her in a wave. She had heard that before. The Inferno. Why did it sound so familiar?

She then realized why it had hit her so hard. It was engraved in her very being. She clenched her fists and her eyes glowed red.

"Sinister," she uttered aloud in contempt. He was back and this time he had something bigger in mind.


	21. Chapter 21

"Hey, are you coming!" shouted Kurt from outside.

"Yeah!" she forced out and threw the journal back where it was, tearing out the page. It was like he knew she was coming. How could he possibly have known?

She got on the jet and took her seat next to Laura.

"That was like, so weird," thought Kitty out loud, "just finding them on an island in the middle of nowhere like that."

"Yeah…real weird," Claudine muttered and then closed her eyes. She wondered if she should tell someone, but she didn't know how. She could hardly think about it without having to bite her tongue. The thoughts of her old life came back before she was a monster. She used to be normal. She used to have normal friends. She glanced over at Laura and sighed. She sat in silence as did everyone else. It wasn't an awkward silence, but more of an accepted apprehension. She was startled when Rogue called out that Jean was coming to.

Jean slowly blinked her eyes open. She instinctively grabbed her aching head.

"Are ya alright?" asked Rogue softly. All of her fellow teammates were gathered around. She looked around further and saw that they were on the X Jet.

"I think so. How did I get here?"

"Don't worry. The Professor tracked your mental signals to the island where we found you. You're safe now."

"The last thing I remember is a man leaning over me with a scalpel. I couldn't make out his face that well though…I-I think we were drugged or something, but I saw he had bright red eyes. All's I remember after that was Scott shooting an optic blast that made the whole ceiling come down before I was knocked out again." She sat up and looked over at Scott in concern, taking his hand.

Claudine cringed. It was definitely Sinister and whatever he wanted with Jean and Scott it obviously wasn't good. She turned her head away and stared out the window. She thirsted to see his corpse at her feet. She shuddered at her sick thoughts and gazed out the window, trying to erase her blood lust.

She got out of the Jet mechanically and went to her room to rest. Kurt had taken Scott to the infirmary with Jean close behind him and everyone else was making a huge fuss over it all, but Claudine just truly wanted to sleep. It was early the next day and she didn't even want to think about going to school. She saw only Sinister's smiling face behind her closed eyes.

Claudine raised her head as Laura opened the door.

"Don't you think it was strange how none of this is adding up; the kidnappings, the island. What is all of this?" asked Claudine.

Laura shrugged and flopped down on her bed, "I don't like it."

"It's all interconnected in some way, but why?" asked Claudine to herself. Claudine opened her mouth to tell Laura about Sinister, but then closed it again. She couldn't. Maybe it was wrong to keep this information from them, but this was her burden to bear, not theirs. She resolved to keep it to herself until she absolutely knew the two events were connected.

Laura lay in bed that night and gazed upon her sleeping roommate. She was having another nightmare. She got up and shook Claudine softly.

Claudine mumbled something to herself and turned over. She began to laugh at something in her dreams. That rare little derisive smile played across the sleeping girl's face, making Laura grin.


	22. Chapter 22

The next few weeks passed uneventfully before the Professor called them down for another meeting. The kidnappings began to come to a halt and the team finally had some actual free time. The Professor called the team down for the first meeting within the two weeks.

"We may be getting another student today."

Claudine sighed, "Oh great. Last time I got stuck with her." She playfully pointed at Laura who raised an eyebrow in acknowledgment.

The Professor ignored her banter and went on, "I am sending Kitty, Jean, Scott, Rogue and Kurt to go get her."

Claudine knew this was coming; now that his two star students were back she and Laura got the boring missions again. Claudine rolled her eyes at Kitty's enthusiastic visage.

"Like, sure Professor! This is like so cool that we're getting a new student!"

He advised them to be careful on their recruiting mission. The girl was scared and very powerful which could make for a dangerous combination. The others didn't seem to really care, but this was going to be their first new student since Laura and Claudine came. Kitty never knew what to expect on these recruiting missions, but she hoped that the girl's parents would understand. It only took hers a life and death situation.

"Aw, can I please drive?" she pleaded with Scott. She didn't know why they never let her take the wheel. She had her license and everything.

"Uh…no, Kitty," said Scott nervously.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Um…because Scott always drives," affirmed Kurt. Kitty sat in the back seat grumpily. The others seemed to let out a sigh of relief. Scott plugged the coordinates of Cerebro into his GPS. The girl was in Bayville apparently.

"It says here that she's a level five mutant," read Jean as they approached the street.

Kurt nodded and shrugged, "Ve have nozhing to vorry about. Everybody loves zhe Fuzzy man."

Kitty rolled her eyes and phased out of the car. There didn't seem to be any people around. The street was empty. Kitty had never been to this part of town before. The houses were on the verge of falling down and everything seemed to be abandoned. "Are you sure these are the right coordinates?"

"That's what the Prof. said."

They began to walk down the dank alleyway. Kurt jumped at the shadow of a cat. Kitty giggled.

"Zhis is seriously creepy," shuddered Kurt. He had his image inducer on in case the girl wasn't used to mutants yet.

Kitty thought she saw a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. Rogue was proposing the idea of leaving as Kitty walked away as silently as possible from the group. She didn't want to scare the small figure huddled against the wall.

"Hello," said Kitty softly, "Who are you?" There was no reply. "Are you okay?" Still no answer. "I'm here with my friends to help you." She reached down to comfort the bundle.

She yelped a bit when the figure cringed and began to form a sort of medieval armor on her skin. The girl took this opportunity to jump up and run.

"Wait!" called Kitty, running after her. The little thing wriggled her body through a small hole in the chain link fence before her. She was trapped with absolutely no way out. She didn't have the strength to conjure another portal. She could only hope to defend herself or that the strange girl really did want to help her.

Kitty slowed down once she noticed the girl's position. "I'm gonna come through the fence," she soothed, "Don't be scared." She phased through the chain link barrier easily. She just hoped she didn't scare the girl. She could see her shaking.

"My name is Kitty. What's yours?" Silence. "I'm a friend." The younger girl looked up at her slowly. Kitty held out her hand.

"My name is Illyana," she replied softly in her Russian accent, taking Kitty's hand, her armor disappearing.

Kitty smiled and led her back to the rest of the team, "Hey, guys! This is Illyana."

Scott seemed surprised, "How- nevermind. Let's just take her back to meet the Professor."

The van was quiet on the way back except for the excited conversation that Kitty was making with Illyana. It was more one sided.

"Yeah, you're gonna love it at the mansion. Everyone's really nice and you'll probably get your own room and everything." Illyana slightly nodded.

"I wish I had my own room ,but I can't because there has to be two students to a room so when another student comes you'll have to share your room-

Kitty was cut off by the around of the van coming to a halt. "…and this is the mansion."

"Wow, it's very…big," replied Illyana. She had never seen such a big house before. She had lived on a modest, yet substantial farm in Russia.

Once inside, she was introduced to the Professor who asked Kitty to show her to her room and get a uniform. Her test would be in an hour. Much to her relief, Kitty offered to accompany her to the so called 'Danger Room'.

"We would like you to begin with a simple exercise of your mutant abilities," said a man over the loudspeaker. She was visibly shaking. She wasn't exactly confident in her abilities. "Kitty, please come with me," she pleaded, "I do not like going into the darkness alone. It scares me."

Kitty seemed unsure, but nodded. With that Illyana focused her energy on the molecules around her, tightening them and adapting them, eventually forming her portal.

Kitty gasped as a floating black disk materialized in front of the small Russian girl. She began to question her agreement to 'go into the darkness' with her. "Wow, that's like, cool," she gulped, trying to hide her nerves. Illyana smiled up at her from the praise and took her hand, leading her into the unknown.

"Whoa," gasped Kitty, speechlessly, "What is this place?" She looked around at the fire and scorched rock surrounding her. She didn't want to think about it, but this looked like Hell.

"I don't know," said Illyana, nonchalantly, "I use it to get to other places faster."

"Like teleportation," asked Kitty. This kind of seemed like Kurt's deal. She just hoped there wouldn't be a repeat of the school dance. She shuddered.

Illyana looked at her quizzically and shook her head, "No."

"Oh…"

Kitty looked up to see snow falling down from the red sky, "It's snowing!"

"Not snow," replied Illyana, "Ash, like from the fires."

Kitty stared at the ground in dismay. Illyana didn't seem scared of this world, but she had to admit that she was.

Illyana suddenly screamed and her armor materialized once again. When Kitty realized the creature that was staring her directly in the eyes it was too late. She fell to the ground, trying to scramble away from the reptilian jackal. She could smell its foul breath and see it dripping blood from its maw. "You like, really need a breath mint," she said weakly and braced for its sharp teeth.

Before the beast could tear at her throat, Illyana intervened, putting herself between them. She began to chant a strange incantation and to Kitty's surprise the jackal, reptile thing backed away and seemed to whine in fear.

"Don't worry about the dog," said Illyana, allowing her Eldritch armor to dissipate.

"Al-alright," she stammered and got to her feet, still shaking.

Another portal materialized before them and Kitty jumped out as quickly as she could. She lay on the Danger Room floor panting from fear. "How long were we in there for?"

"About thirty seconds," replied Hank, coming down with his clipboard.

Kitty told Hank her tale to which he replied 'fascinating' and walked away jotting down notes. "_Fascinating?" _she thought, "_I was so close to being lunch!"_

Illyana looked innocently up at her and apologized for her 'dog'.

The professor pulled Illyana into his office. She was an innocent looking girl of no more than nine who had straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She brushed away her bangs and stood waiting for the professor to speak.

"Yes?" she asked calmly, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, there is nothing wrong," replied the professor, impressed by her stoic nature, something rarely seen at her age. He opened his mouth to speak, but dismissed her instead, not wanting to alarm her.


	23. Chapter 23

By the end of the week the others barely noticed they even had a new student. She was, for the most part quiet and hung around Kitty most of the time. Illyana wasn't old enough to go to Bayville High and the Professor had tried to enroll her in the elementary, but her arrival was so unexpected that he hadn't registered her yet. She sat for most of the day in her room and read whatever there was on the shelves or watched television. She enthusiastically greeted Kitty when she came home, but even Kitty had other things to do.

On this particular day she was sitting in her room amusing herself by opening small portals and letting some of the ashes snow down to the floor. She smiled and blew them away from her face. Kitty thought they looked like snow. She missed Kitty. Kitty had saved her. She could trust Kitty.

She soon got bored of this and began to observe the outside. She wanted to get out of the room, but Kitty had said that it wasn't safe to go out alone. She wasn't old enough, but still…she was really bored and she went outside all alone on the farm. Plus she could just use one of her portals to make just one quick trip. It wouldn't hurt anyone, would it? Kitty had said not to though. What else could she do though?

She came to the resolve that she would go in to feed the dog and then come back. No one would even notice that she was even gone. She focused her energy and opened a portal just big enough and squeezed herself in.

She walked with sure steps up the brimstone path. She didn't know what it led to, only that it was a road and when she followed it should ended up in different places. She thought it was a lot like the Yellow Brick Road in that movie. What was it called again? She looked down and realized she was straying from her usual path. The stone began to get darker and hotter. "Where am I?" she asked aloud.

She was surprised to hear someone answer back, "Are you lost, child?"

She hesitated and then replied, "Yes, sir."

"Why don't you just follow the Yellow Brick Road?"

"There is no- she began and then gasped to see golden bricks paving the pathway, "Are you the wizard?"

"Why, yes."

She smiled and gladly followed his Yellow Brick Road. She skipped along as she had seen in the movie and hummed to herself. The wizard had been very nice and seemed to know this path very well, but she couldn't help but to realize the farther she went, the darker the sky turned and the ashes began to start falling in heaps. She had never seen this happen before in her portals. She hesitated and then looked up at the sky, "Mr. Wizard, are you sure this is the way?"

He laughed. No, he cackled as she looked down in horror to see the bricks below her crumble away. She screamed and began to fall down, down, down into the pit of blackness. Kitty wasn't there to help her. No one was.


	24. Chapter 24

"Illyana! Where are you!" yelled Kitty for about the hundredth time. Sure, the Professor had already told her to stop looking, that she was probably back with a relative, that she could take care of herself, that you couldn't expect someone so used to running to stay put, but Kitty wouldn't listen. The Professor had even said she was long gone because her signature wasn't on Cerebro. Kitty knew something was wrong. She couldn't just stop looking for that poor innocent girl. She could be lost and hurt and all alone. Was she the only one who actually cared?

Laura came down to get a glass of water, "You still looking for Illyana?"

"Of course. She's probably lost and alone, and scared."

"Calm down," sighed Laura, "She's a level five mutant. She can take care of herself."

"I can't just assume that!"

"Take it from me. I've been on the run for years and I'm still here. She's probably fine."

"Why would she just run away?"

"To tell you the truth, being on the run so many years, sometimes I just want to run away, but I can't. She can. She did," Claudine turned off the tap and began to walk up the stairs.

Kitty felt slightly better, but still uneasy. She decided that maybe Laura was right. Maybe she should just go to bed. Staying in one spot for so long was probably boring to Illyana. She just hoped that one day she would see her again.

_She screamed as she fell through the blackness; down, down, down. Any minute she would see the ground below and then instantaneously die- at least she hoped it would be instantaneous. She imagined herself lying in a pool of her own blood with her neck twisted in an unnatural angle. Maybe she would be able to heal herself…maybe. She didn't want to have to see that ground though. Perhaps she could fall forever in the abyss. _

_Her screams died down when she got used to the feeling of plummeting off of a sheer cliff. She heard a faint laughter below her and could see two piercing red eyes. She should have known it was Sinister. She was a fool. She began to start to scream because she could see the most terrifying thing in the world. She was going to die. _

The door creaked open and Claudine turned over to see Laura coming in. She lay in bed and stared into the darkness. What did it all mean? She missed the time before Sinister haunted her dreams. She shivered to think they were one of the same. She was of his DNA. She was his _daughter_. She sat up and opened the small drawer at her bedside. She took out the torn and crumbled and torn piece of paper _the inferno is spreading. _She sighed and balled it up once again. She knew it was important. If she knew one thing about her father it was that he always had a motive and a means to get his way. She closed her eyes and tried to blink away his searing image from her retinas.

"3, 2, and …Go!" the cameraman signaled. Kate quickly tossed her lipstick to one of the numerous assistants and began her usual mantra "This is Kate Clearwater reporting from channel 8 News" and so on and so on. She was reporting from Times Square on some anti-violence protest. She stifled a yawn and mechanically gestured to the group of tye dyed shirts with picket signs. Why did she always have to get the boring jobs? "Yes, this is the third day-

She was suddenly cut off by a sharp scream followed by a burst of light. She felt her body hitting the brick wall of an already dilapidated building. She fluttered her eyes open and instinctively put her hand to her forehead. She blinked the blurriness out of her eyes and large man in the distance. He was almost catlike in stance and was barreling directly towards her…

Laura reluctantly sat down at the ovular conference table and looked at the grave faces of the adults. Whatever this was it couldn't be too great. She smiled at her understatement. She hungered for a good fight though. The danger Room didn't come close to a real tactical battle. It was what she was made for. Literally.

The Professor wheeled to the front of the room and addressed his students, "I have called you all here to-

"because evil mutants have been ravaging one of the most important cities in the world all day and we haven't done one thing to stop them?" cut in Scott angrily. The Professor seemed surprised, "Scott, please sit down. It is much more than that. We cannot just-

"Why not? Isn't that what being an X-Man is about? Protecting the weak?"

Logan growled and stood up, "Kid, you don't understand. SHIELD has this covered and we can't afford any more attention on this school. As much as I would love to go against Fury, he could shut down this Institute."

"Precisely," agreed Hank, "We have called this meeting to call a lockdown of the school. The Xavier Institute is far too close to this conflict."

Scott opened his mouth to say something else, but instead stormed off in frustration. They had been training all year for something like this. The Professor's expression remained placid and he waved away the rest. Laura bared her teeth in anger. For once she was with Scott, she didn't like SHIELD a bit. They treated mutants like weapons. They were no better than the place she had escaped.

"You okay?" asked Claudine, "I'm pretty pissed off too you know. I have a feeling that this is more than just an unplanned attack."

"I'm fine," murmured Laura, "I've got the same feeling."

"SHIELD is just an organization of a bunch of phonies anyway who suck up to the US Government like Scott sucks up to the Professor."

Laura nodded and flopped down on her bed, "Great, now we're stuck in this place for who knows how long."

"I tried reading Scott, but he has no idea either. Looks like we're blind on this one," Claudine sighed as she levitated an apple into her hand.

Scott swiveled his head to see the Professor at his door. "What happened to knocking?"

"I know you're angry Scott, but I need to leave you in charge of the mansion while the Beast, Storm, Wolverine and I go on official business at the White House."

"Are you sure you don't want your new friends at SHIELD to take care of it," Scott smirked and then sighed, "Alright, I'll do it."

The Professor nodded and left without another word. He knew that he couldn't push the boy. He had a lot on his mind.

Scott got up surely, walking briskly to Jean and Rogue's room. "We're taking a little field trip to the city."


	25. Chapter 25

"What are we doing?" asked Laura suddenly.

"Umm, sitting here, doing nothing," replied Claudine nonchalantly.

"This isn't right."

"What are we going to do about it? The Prof. says not to go anywhere and more importantly Logan says not to go anywhere."

"We should be out there."

"Oh, you just want an excuse to use all those skills we learned in the DR."

"Wow, it's like you can read minds," replied Laura sarcastically.

"Hey, that doesn't mean I don't want to do the same thing." The two girls smiled at each other and got up to get suited up.

"I hope no one saw us," whispered Laura, following Claudine. They wore their uniforms under their everyday clothes just in case they were to run into the Professor or Logan.

"I hope you can fly the X Jet," replied Claudine. They arrived at the massive door of the hangar. She let out a breath she forgot she was holding. They had made it without running into anyone. She pressed the code on the keypad that she had read off of Scott and slipped into the massive room.

I told you we'd make it," said Laura confidently.

"Hey guys," yelped Kitty excitedly, causing Laura and Claudine to jump.

To their relief it was only Kitty, Kurt and Bobby. "You guys scared us," said Claudine angrily, "What are you doing down here?"

"What are you doing down here?" asked Bobby, nervously.

"Wait…you were going to take the X Jet down to the city to fight," smiled Claudine to Laura.

"No!" defended Kitty.

Kurt sighed, "She's a telepath. She already knows. Ja, ve vere. It's not right to just sit here."

Laura nodded solemnly, "I guess that makes five of us. We're in."

"What are y'all doin down here?" called Rogue followed by Scott and Jean.

"Ummm, just uh, taking a look at the jet. Yup, looks good. We'll be going now," said Bobby hurriedly.

"Not so fast," ordered Scott.

"Like, please don't tell the Professor," begged Kitty. Now they were definitely done for.

"The Professor's gone to Washington with Storm, Beast, and Wolverine. He put me in charge," said Scott raising an eyebrow, "Where do you all think you're going?"

Kurt opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Bobby, "Wait guys. I've got this."

"Well, you obviously were going to the city too, so why shouldn't we tell the Professor on you guys?"

Scott paused for a minute and then sighed, "Fine, you can come too."

Claudine smiled at the sight of Jean's hand in his and nodded, "Yes."

"Wait…" said Jean as the jet started up, "Who's watching the mansion then?"

"Jamie," replied Scott.

"Oh no."


	26. Chapter 26

**First off, thanks for reviewing and secondly, enjoy. **

"Are we there yet?" whined Bobby yet again.

"Does that answer your question mein freund?" asked Kurt wide eyed. He was pointing to the large purple cloud that was circling ahead of them.

"Is that-

"That's her!" yelled Kitty, "That's one of Illyana's portals! She must be somewhere close by!"

"This doesn't make any sense," mused Jean, "How is Illyana connected to the other mutants?"

Claudine looked down and saw what the apocalypse would look like. Hell, maybe this _was_ the Apocalypse. She felt the panic rising in the minds down on the streets. Shadowy hulking figures roamed the streets. They were without minds…but that was impossible.

"You are in a restricted air space. Land now or you will be shot down," commanded a deep and controlling voice from behind.

Scott cursed, "There's nowhere to land!" They heard the muffled announcement once again before they felt a jostle and the sharp drop of the now useless metal can. Laura growled and put her claws through the leather upholstery.

"DO SOMETHING SUMMERS!" yelled Laura.

"I really wish I could!" he yelled back, "Jean, can you try and shield us from impact?"

"I'll try," said Jean, pressing her fingers to her temples in concentration. The jet did begin to slow down a bit. Kitty screamed as the jet hit impact. The windows had been shattered and the door was thrust off of its hinges. Bobby heaved up his breakfast. Kurt quickly bamfed them out of the jet before the roof collapsed inward (thankfully).

A huge helicarrier descended out of the sky, stirring up the rubble beneath it. Laura shielded her eyes. The aircraft read in big letters 'SHIELD'.

Scott stepped forward , one hand on his visor with Jean following closely behind him.

A middle aged balding man stepped out, "Who are you freaks?"

"The X Men," replied Scott forcefully.

"We-wanted to help you," added Jean.

"We have enough mutants in this city already."

"But- protested Scott.

"You kids run along now."

Laura unsheathed her claws, "That's gonna be a problem considering you destroyed our only way home."

"Uh…guys?" said Kitty uncertainly as the portal began to grow wider.

"Guys?" She said again at the bickering teammates.

"Guys!" she yelled. They spun around. "We like, have a problem."

Kurt gasped when he saw figures materializing, "Mein got." They were even more demonic in appearance than him. He wondered if this was Hell…

"What the-?" mused Laura to herself. Something had just appeared out of the strange portal. She was torn out of her awe by a shot of purple energy that hit her square in the stomach. She growled and pulled herself off the ground, watching her arm heal itself, replacing the missing flesh. Again there was another blast of purple light followed by an astonishing force that sent her sailing onto her back.

"Ah got this," assured Rogue in her unmistakable southern drawl. She launched herself towards their attacker, the man she thought she loved.

Her eyes had widened at the sight of Remy and then hardened into a glare. She couldn't believe that she had been so foolish as to trust him, to let him into her home. She thought he had changed. Now she faced him on the battlefield.

"So it was you that broke into the mansion that night," she spat at him.

"Mi cheri-

"No, I trusted you. Ah thought you were on mah side, but I guess it was all fake."

"No, it's not like that, Remy just wanted to-

"To what? Break my heart for a second time? Get me to trust you so you could get closer to the enemy?" She circled around him, her vision locked on his red and black eyes.

"No, it wasn't like that," whispered Remy, holding out his hand. He had loved her. It was just…complicated.

She smiled. This was just too easy. She reached quickly slipped off her glove and reached for his hand, "Bad move." She almost felt sorry for him when he fell to the ground, his power diminished by her deadly touch. She could have done worse, but something inside of her kept her from completely destroying him.

Claudine felt a swift kick to her temple and willed herself not to pass out. She struggled to get off the ground, but another wave of dizzying energy sent her to her knees again. She was too vulnerable from this position. She opened her eyes to see the green and white haired girl standing over her. Claudine moved her head just in time to miss the heel of her boot which the thrust into the spot where her forehead had been.

"So what do they call you, Nausea or something?" smirked Claudine, trying to slow her opponent down.

"It's Vertigo," sneered the girl. Claudine pretended to be interested and tried to probe her mind for some vulnerability. Next thing she knew she was back on the ground.

"Like that's going to work on me," Vertigo laughed, "I'm somewhat of a telepath too. Want to see?" She sent Claudine down again, this time on her back.

She sustained another kick to the head. This was getting embarrassing. Claudine fired a last resort psychic blast in what she thought was Vertigo's general direction and heard a groan. _Bull's-eye! _

_"__Hello."_

"Get out of my head!" Vertigo shouted and put out her hands.

_"__That's not going to work and neither are your powers. What I really want to know is who you're working for."_

"I can't tell you that!" she yelled to herself as it seemed.

"_I could just do this-_

To Vertigo's dismay, her own hand came closer and closer to her neck and her fingers wrapped around as if to strangle her. She screamed, but nothing came out. She was helpless and her powers were nowhere to be found. He had promised her that she would never be vulnerable again. He had failed her.

_"__Tell me now!" _demanded Claudine, letting her voice echo in Vertigo's head, filling her every thought. "_Innocent people are dying every second. I_ _have no problem killing you."_ Her eyes grew redder as she forced the girl to pick up a shard of shattered glass and bring it closer and closer to her neck. Claudine couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll tell you!" Vertigo gasped, "I'm working for a man named Sinister." She began to cry, "Oh God, he's going to kill me."

"Where is he?" asked Claudine forcefully, the girl still sniveled at her feet.

"Where is he?" she repeated with a cool and deadly tone.

"Top floor…Empire State Building."

Claudine began to let the girl lower the shard of glass, but then thought twice about all the evil she had brought upon this world and all the imperfection she had caused and with a flick of her wrist, slit the girl's throat wide open, letting the blood flow sweetly onto the ground.

_"__This is all a distraction," _she sent out to her teammates, "_The real threat is in the Empire State Building. We've got to go!" _

Scott struggled to let out a yell for help. Darkness was closing in around him. He couldn't breathe. Jean hurled a large chunk of asphalt at Sabretooth. She smiled as it hit him square in the forehead. The hulking man didn't falter and quickly turned toward his assailant and let out a feral growl. Before Jean knew it she was flying through the air and into a dilapidated building.

"And now for you, boy," snarled the feral mutant, "I've been waiting to snap your little neck." Scott struggled to reach for his visor. Sabretooth smirked at his feeble attempt to stop him.

"Sorry mein fruend, but you are going to have to wait a vhile longer," said Kurt, grabbing a hold of his friend and bamfing him away before any harm was done.

Scott looked over to his teammates and was glad to see that they were all there. The Professor would kill him if he got any of the students well-killed. Thanks to Kurt and Kitty they had gotten away from the enemy quite quickly. Now their opposition seemed to be…tied up in something else.

Bobby was busy laughing at the sight of Sabretooth running away from the dog-like demon creature that had emerged from the portal. They were in an abandoned diner called Mary Sue's, but to Kurt's dismay all of the food was either spoiled or on the ground.

Scott knew he had to come up with some sort of plan. That's what the Professor would have told him to do.

"Alright," he said quieting the team down, "We have two major problems; the portal and the Empire State Building. Since the portal is obviously out of the question, we'll start with Sinister."

Kitty spoke up solemnly, "I'll do it."

"Do what?" asked Scott, puzzled.

"If Kurt can teleport me into the portal then I'll go in and stop it."

"It's too dangerous," said Jean.

"Illyana's in there. I know more about this than any of you and could we really, like risk letting more of those things into the city? Worse comes to worse I could just phase through them. No prob." She tried to sound nonchalant, but it came out more strained and anxious than she intended.

Kurt seemed hesitant, but nodded, "Alright I vill go too."

Scott contemplated it in his head, but in the end reluctantly told them to move out. He knew that Kitty was right, it was their best chance. They couldn't afford more destruction. Still, Kitty and Kurt were like brother and sister to him. If they got hurt…or worse he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

"The rest of you will come with me, but first we'll have to find a ride."

Scott sighed. He was beginning to think they were way in over their heads.


	27. Chapter 27

Claudine stared down at her hands, the hands that had killed. Maybe she truly was just like her father. The worst part of it all was that she had enjoyed it. She wondered if the humans were right, if she was a monster. She had called them humans; like she wasn't human…she was human. She was still the girl that lived in the city and aspired to do something good for the world. How could she be human if she looked the way she did though? How could she be human if she could murder someone with her mind? That wasn't human. She was the sort of thing that kept people tossing and turning at night, making them awake in a cold sweat. Why had he made her this way? He said she would be perfect. She looked up, startled as Scott swerved the beat up old cab they had hotwired. She saw Laura gazing upon her, concerned. She realized in horror that Laura had seen her in her moment of vulnerability. The one person that made her feel…human had seen her become a monster. She forced herself to snap out of it as they approached the building.

"You know I've lived in New York City my whole life and have never seen this damn thing and this really wasn't what I had in mind," she muttered partly to herself. She heard Jean gasp and quickly looked up. The building was surrounded on all sides by grotesque looking figures of all shapes. They seemed like sick caricatures of Sinister, mistakes of some sort. Her father was the only one sick enough to be responsible for these monstrosities.

"Looks like we're going to have to power through," ordered Scott, screeching the cab to a halt and letting them get out.

The team went into the mess of malformed bodies. Laura and Claudine stayed to the back.

"Hey, Claude!" shouted Bobby over the moaning of the creatures, "they look just like you."

"I'm taking that as an insult," she shouted back, taking two down at a time with a psychic blast.

Her eyes glowed a brilliant red as she forced back more of the things.

"I've got your back," assured Laura.

"Thanks," Claudine said, hearing the SNIKT of Laura's claws. Claudine put out her hand, ready to take on any others that got in their way. "Uh!" she groaned as she tripped over a body and fell into a raving crowd of the things. They swiped at her and moaned. They reminded her of an old zombie movie. She hit one square in the jaw and got to her feet once again. She looked over their heads to locate Laura. She didn't seem to be having much better luck.

Claudine shrieked in surprise as she felt a sudden weight on her back. She threw the thing to the ground. It was a female and had quite angular features. It looked like… "Cassidy?" she asked aloud. It was the missing girl from the news…these were all missing people from the news. She felt her stomach churning. What had her father done? Why? Suddenly she felt the urge to destroy the shells that used to be human beings. They were experiments that had gone wrong. She needed to put them out of their misery. They were impure, monstrous. She gazed down at the almost pleading eyes of the former girl that lay at her feet. It growled at her. It would be more cruel to let these creatures live. With a twist of her wrist, she broke the thing's neck, putting it out of its miserable life-if you could call that horrible existence a life.

She stumbled out and forced open the door, relieved to see the rest of her teammates there.

"I thought we lost you," said Laura, sounding relived.

"You missed me," she smiled.

"No," said Laura defensively, shoving her playfully.

Bobby froze the door closed and sat down in a heap. Everyone seemed pretty beaten up already.

Scott tried the elevator to find it out of order, "Looks like we're going to have to use the stairs."

The team groaned. "Of course," muttered Claudine, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, come on guys, the stairs can't be _that_ bad," said Jean optimistically.

"It wouldn't be that bad she said, it'll be good exercise she said," muttered Bobby to himself.

"We're almost there," called Scott.

"Whose brilliant idea was it to sprint up the first ten flights?" panted Laura, "Oh right…it was Scott's."

Claudine felt a strange mixture of terror and relief when she saw the sign for the 101st flight.


	28. Chapter 28

_Sorry guys. Super short chapter. I'll put up the next one soon._

"Um, Kitty?" asked Kurt uncertainly. He looked at the volcanic rock and rust colored stream with obvious apprehension. It reminded him all too much of his incident with the teleportation device. He shivered.

"Yeah?"

"Nothing."

"Illyana!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Her call was met with a demonic yelping of some unseen creature.

"Not so loud!" hissed Kurt, "Ve don't know vhat is out zhere."

"I do! Illyana's out there." She ignored Kurt's pleas and continued to call out for the lost girl.

A dislodged rock clattered to the ground. Kurt yelped. Kitty was a bit unnerved, but kept a steady pace down the odd brimstone pathway.

Kitty spun around upon hearing what she made out to be a guttural growl, but didn't detect any perceivable threat. Kurt's yellow eyes widened as he picked up his pace. He didn't like this place at all, something felt terribly wrong about it.

Another growl pierced the still air. The sickly green of its bristling fur became apparent in the eternal dusk of the ancient dimension. Kitty screamed and Kurt grabbed her close, attempting to teleport away. However hard he tried though he could not break free from the bonds of this dimension. For the first time in his life Kurt felt stuck. He smelled the foul breath of the beast and found himself mesmerized by its glowing red eyes. "Mein Got."


	29. Chapter 29

Madeline shifted from side to side at the silly little desk her boss had instructed her to sit at. She couldn't help but to feel a bit excited and nervous for their arrival-her guests. They called themselves the X-Men. All her life she had been training for this moment. She heard the pitter patter of footsteps climbing up the stairs and smiled. Her guests had finally arrived!

The one leading the way was Rogue and the cute one behind her was Scott, the smaller one was called Laura, the next one was the master's child, Claudine. The one at the end was unmistakable, for she had seen that face. She had that face. Mister Sinister had told her that her target's name was Jean Grey. She glared with pure hatred at the girl who stared back at her in disbelief. It was to be expected. He had told Madeline that Jean wouldn't be aware that she had a clone, nor would the other X-Men.

Mister Sinister had made her with a small tissue sample of Jean's and raised her in his lab. She was told that she wasn't actually a person when she was ten and hated the girl who had what could have been her life since then. Mr. Essex had told her not to worry though. She would be given her chance. She would be given the opportunity to destroy Jean Grey.

"You're…me," blurted out Jean.

"No!" she shrieked back in rage, but then collected herself, "I am not _you_. _I_ am _me_. My name is Madeline Pryor to be exact and you don't know how much I have wanted to meet you for all these years. She held down the pager, "Mister Sinister, your guests have arrived."

The handsome boy stepped in front of Jean protectively. Madeline rolled her eyes, knowing how much more powerful Jean was than her boyfriend. "Where's Sinister?" asked the boy angrily.

Madeline smiled, looking from face to face of the X Men who were preparing themselves to battle as if they even had a chance. The one who called herself Claudine felt a similar rage to her own. Madeline furrowed her brows and noted to herself that she would have to ask Master about his daughter later.

"My associate will be here soon enough," she smiled, "You shouldn't be concerned with him just this second though. I'm terribly sorry to do this but- With that she extended her hands and flung the others aside. She was only there for Jean Grey. She was instructed to leave the others.

She propelled her self forward with her pent up rage, grabbing hold of Jean Grey and shattering the glass out of the window. She felt a blast of burning energy hit her in the back, but she proceeded to fling herself and Jean out the window and free falling towards the ground.

She let go of her duplicate's body and used her telepathy to suspend herself high above the ground. She silently hoped that Jean would know enough to do the same rather than let the ground do Madeline's life work and goal.

Jean didn't scream as she felt her self-falling or when she saw the ground coming closer and closer to her mortal body or when she faintly heard Scott yell for her in anguish. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, the fiery blasts of warfare failed to resonate in her ears as she fell to her death. Her body grew warm and then scorching. Her whole being began to light up in flames. She opened her eyes up wide in agony. She did scream when she heard it's voice filled with the ancient power of whole galaxies resonate through her entire being and take residence in her body. She stopped falling. She stopped thinking. She was only a tenant in her own skin. She let the flames engulf her. She let the Phoenix rise from her ashes once again…


	30. Chapter 30

"Calm down," soothed Bobby, never seeing Scott let himself go like this on a mission, "Jean is one of the most powerful mutants in the world. I'm sure she's fine."

"It's not that that I'm worried about," said Scott, picking himself off the ground, "What gets me is that I can't do a thing to help her."

Bobby looked up from his friend and began to stare at something in the distance…was that…?

"Get down!" he shouted to his teammates, hurling a series of ice daggers at the incoming projectile.

Rogue slowly lifted her head from the floor after hearing nothing except the shatter of some more glass. "Bobby what the hell did we have to get down for?" she asked in anger. "This isn't the best time to be jokin' around."

Bobby looked back towards the window to only see a few shattered windows that had resulted from the ice.

"I-I saw a missile coming and-and it was right there! I swear!" he said frantically. "There was definitely a huge missile right there just a few seconds ago!"

"Yeah right," said Rogue, rolling her eyes at him.

"Do you really think I would lie about something like that I-

"Guys, stop!" said Scott forcefully, "We need to get ourselves together and focus on the real threat. Whatever just happened doesn't matter anymore."

"It was probably a just a trick," said Claudine, "-From Sinister I mean."

Scott nodded, "We're going to find Sinister and stop this." If not for the people of the city, then he was going to do this for Jean. He could sense that she was still alive. He had a sort of psychic bond with her. He could still feel her in the recesses of his mind. His eyes glowed fiercely as he thought of the man who had created this chaos. So many people dying unnecessarily with no hope of being saved….it made him sick with disgust and contempt.

"Hello Scott Summers," hissed a voice from behind him- behind the door behind him.

"Sinister!" he shouted aloud to the team. "I know where he is."

"Are you sure?" asked Rogue skeptically.

"I'm sure," Scott affirmed. He would find this man and kill him at all costs. They hesitantly followed their team leader with Laura and Claudine at the rear. Before the two girls could file in to meet their teammates and the much sought after villain the door slammed before their set expressions of ambition. Claudine widened her eyes in fear as she heard the fading screams of her fellow X-Men.


	31. Chapter 31

Scott let out yell at the unexpected drop that followed his stepping through the door. Her didn't expect the swirling portal and certainly didn't expect the abyss that had followed. He should have known better than to fall for this trap. He wished he could do something-anything, but Logan hadn't exactly taught them how to reverse gravity. He saw the faint presence of the ground speeding towards him. With a dull thud they hit the ground. Rogue groaned and put her hand to her forehead.

"Hey, we actually survived!" exclaimed Bobby.

"Yeah," Scott agreed, "But where exactly are we?"

Meanwhile…

Kitty felt its hot breath against her skin and grabbed Kurt's arm in case she had to phase through the beast. She just hoped that her powers would work here.

"Heel Cu Sith!" came a commanding voice from behind them. Kitty opened one eye to see that the beast had backed away. Kurt let out a sigh of relief that they hadn't become dog food.

Out of the swirling scarlet fog stepped a woman with long white blonde hair, swathed in a green cloak. The green creature rested ins head on the ground in front of the woman and whimpered like a dog. Their savior sort of looked like…

"Illyana!" exclaimed Kitty, running towards what she made out to be her friend.

The women, looked up as she pet Cu Sith on the head, "Hello Kitty."

"What happened to you?" she asked

"Time moves in strange ways here in this realm," she replied, signaling the mutt to let her alone, "but I still remember you."

Kitty ran over to give Illyana a hug.

"Things are not well in my realm though," said Illyana, her face grave.

"Could you close zhe portals?" asked Kurt, uncertainly.

"I'm afraid not," she said, shaking her head, "Things are not well in this realm." She lifted up her head as if she realized something not there before, "Ah, your friends have arrived."

Kitty looked at her, puzzled, but Illyana simply waved her hand to open a new portal, leading them through to a similar landscape.

"Kitty, Kurt!" yelled Bobby as if he were at some bizarre family reunion.

Among other things, Kurt was surprised to see Scott with sans glasses and Rogue without her gloves.

"Who's this?" asked Scott, warily.

"Illyana," said Kitty, "I'll explain later."

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why our powers aren't working. Where are we?" asked Rogue, her hand on her hip.

"You are in Limbo," Illyana responded solemnly, "and you may call me the true Sorceress Supreme of this land."

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Bobby, waving his hands about, "So a little Russian girl somehow turned into the Glenda the Good Witch in Limbo?"

"Not 'Glenda the Good Witch'," said Illyana, puzzled by the comment, "The Supreme Sorceress. Witches are much less powerful."

Kitty eyed Bobby doggedly.

"What?" he asked, defensively.

"Can you get us out of here?" asked Scott hopefully.

Illyana frowned once more, "I'm afraid not. A stronger power has been corrupted this realm for a while now. It is keeping me from escaping to your dimension. I have been trying for years, but even as the Sorceress Supreme I cannot."

"Well, isn't there somezhing ve can do?" asked Kurt.

"We must go to the fortress of N'astirh."


	32. Chapter 32

"What the hell just happened?" snarled Laura.

"My father-he's close. I can feel him in my mind."

"Are you sure it isn't just another one of his tricks?"

"Yes," whispered Claudine back as if she was listening to a far off noise. Laura didn't detect anything with her heightened senses, but then again the connection was probably psychic. She really hated all this psychic crap. She couldn't see it or hear it or better yet, put her claws through it, but she did see the door open on its own out of the corner of her eye.

Claudine began walking towards it.

"Is it just me, or did those horror movies we watched with Kurt not get to you at all?" she hissed, afraid Sinister could hear her from wherever he was, "Whoever goes through the creepy door usually doesn't end up happily ever after." She smirked at her own humor, but Claudine seemed not to notice.

X 23 stepped carefully into the room after her friend and so far there were no giant portals or anything. Just a lab that would've made any mad scientist jealous.

"I see you have finally come to see me, dear child," uttered that same voice in all of Claudine's nightmares. HE was here.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Oh, Jean!" Madeline sang out. She hovered in the air effortlessly like he had taught her. She laughed a bit and hoped that poor Jean knew enough not to die. If Jean had gone splat then she would get no fun whatsoever. That didn't seem fair. He had promised. She sighed.

There had been no answer. She started to lower herself to the ground to observe the carnage and look at her genetic sister, post mortem that is. "Come out, come out wherever you are," she called. She saw of the body; no blood, no bone, no flesh pasted to the sidewalk like a decoupage. "How…disappointing."

She was surprised to see a flaming crater sized hole that had taken out several cars. She wondered if it had come from the portal. It probably had. She had seen the creatures before, some could engulf themselves in flames. She walked with the surest steps she could manage to the great crater. She moved rubble out of the way as she picked her way to the hole. She peered down into the abyss and saw what seemed like a glowing ember at the bottom of the crevice. It began to grow brighter, brighter, brighter. She screamed as the light seared her retinas. "Stop! I am one of the master's children!"

It began to blind her and her skin began to burn and boil from the heat. She closed her eyes and inched back as fast as she could. "Please….no."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"So…what exactly is N'astirh?" asked Rogue in her Southern drawl. She had her arms crossed and showed other signs of complete reluctance, yet she followed the others nonetheless, willing to take a chance to potentially save the world…not like anyone gave them a proper thank you last time.

Illyana visibly shivered at the mention of the name. "He is a demon. One of great power who before I have encountered and defeated. However now with this stronger external power N'astirh has grown stronger, stronger than even I, the Sorceress Supreme."

Bobby gulped, "He doesn't sound very friendly."

Illyana laughed, "No, but I am afraid that the only portal left for us back to Earth is being guarded in his fortress. We must go back to your realm and destroy the soul sword, the life force of all of Limbo by throwing ti back into the hellfire in which it was created."

"Right…," said Kitty, "So, like, where is this guy's fortress?"

"Where everything lays," she whispered, "behind the veil of death."

The group stopped before one of the deeper parts of the crimson river. Kurt's demonic eyes darted from side to side, "You don't mean…"

Kitty heard a splash and turned her head to find that Illyana was gone, into the river that swirled a few feet below their platform. Kitty screamed after her, but there was no reply. Rogue held her back from jumping in herself. The minutes that went by in the moments after Illyana apparently drowned herself seemed like hours and the whole team fell silent. What does one say in such a peculiar situation as this?

The words dropped out of Kitty's mouth like stones, "She's…gone."

"Scott looked down in disbelief and cleared his throat, trying to regain his leader-like composure, "She said that the fortress was behind the veil of death. Maybe this is what she meant."

"You mean we're just going to take her word for it and kill ourselves one by one?" asked Bobby incredulously. "She could be crazy! How do we know that this chick isn't totally insane?"

Kitty didn't hear a word of the yelling match that was ensuing behind her. She looked into that water that ebbed and flowed around where Illyana's body had sank. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "I trust her," she whispered and closed her eyes, allowing herself to plunge into the crimson stream that now seemed miles below her.

The falling sensation lasted less than a minute before she hit the icy waves. She panicked at first, hearing the cries of her friends above, but then gave into the currents, submitting to the darkness that began to consume her. She guessed that going into the light was just a myth. Death was black and starless.


	33. Chapter 33

** Please Review/ Comment. Thanks... **

"Father," Claudine whispered as the shadowy figure began to reveal itself. Laura was in a fighting stance, ready to sink her claws into whatever came in her way.

Sinister held out his hand, letting the telekinetic energy engulf the experiment known as X 23. Laura unsheathed her claws as she was pinned to the wall. Claudine tried to lunge him, but he quickly flung her down to the ground.

"You are a most interesting specimen," he purred to her, "I'm not surprised my daughter chose to keep you as a pet."

Sinister could feel the girl trying to resist his power. She was quite strong. He let the cage fall above her, trapping her like an animal.

Laura unsheathed her claws and slashed at the metal bars.

"It's no use, child. This cage is made of pure adamantium."

Claudine felt her head wound healing up as she picked herself off the ground, "She's not my pet."

"She isn't the reason that you have come all this way to see me."

"I didn't come to see you. I came here to kill you."

Sinister grinned, "Ah, yes. You met the X-Men as they call themselves."

Claudine ignored his last comment, "Why am I here?"

"Isn't that what humans have been asking for centuries now?"

"No," she said forcefully, "Why did you do this to me?"

He put his hands out as a mock gesture of innocence.

"_You know what_," she demonstrated.

"_I have made you a God. Why do you not thank me?" _Sinister paced the room, circling her, like a hungry predator.

_ "You have made me a monster. You have made thousands of others monsters as well, why?" _

_ "To make a perfect world just as the humans have tried to do generations, never succeeding. The key to perfection is not to change the world, but the people within it. You were but the prodigal son and one of my only successes."_

_ "Is that how you think of me? Your experiment, your lab rat?"_

_ "No, you are so much more, if only you could see it. Claudine, you and I could rule the world together." _

_ "You're a telepath just as I am and you know damn well that I've watched way too many action movies to fall for that crap." _

_ "Very well, it is a shame I have to destroy my prototype." _


	34. Chapter 34

Kitty knew she was dying, her breath was cut off in the icy water and her lungs pleaded for oxygen. Her vision darkened.

Kitty woke up to the swirling embers of a newly started fire. She gasped for air, coughing up the water she had drowned in moments before.

"Where am I?" she said partly to herself.

Ilyana's face shone by the firelight, "The fortress of N'astirh."

Kitty grinned to herself, she knew her friend wouldn't have lied to her. Strangely, she felt comfort in the fact she had been willing to die to get here, to save the world. She felt the rush that she had felt against Apocalypse, she was being a hero.

Illyana walked over to the bubbling stream that was beside them without a word, reaching in and dampening her robes, heaving a body out of the swirling water and then another and another. Everyone had made it, and more importantly everyone had trusted her.

She grinned to see Kurt, coming out of the stream, complaining that it would take hour for his fur to dry. Bobby responded to Kurt's complaints by splashing him once more.

Scott sighed at the two boys and Rogue rolled her eyes, "Don't you two ever take anything seriously?"

There came a gust of heated wind, causing Illyana to shiver, "We are close to the demon king. N'astirh must know of us coming through the gates of death."

Kitty spun around upon hearing a guttural growl, "Like, I suppose that isn't your dog?"

"I'm afraid not," replied Illyana, slashing her dagger through the air. As if it were ink bleeding onto paper, a black shadow materialized at her feet.

"What the hell was that!" yelled Bobby.

"It is the gatekeepers. We must hurry."

Rogue felt her heart start to beat faster as she ran after her teammates, away from the beasts that were apparently close in tow. How was she supposed to fight an enemy she couldn't even see? She felt a sharp tug on her leg followed by a searing pain in her left thigh. She yelped and kicked blindly at the thing biting at her leg. "Ah'm not a chew toy!"

She grinned, feeling her boot connect with a body.

"Help!" yelled Kurt to someone-anyone. He had been knocked to the ground and could hear the thing's heavy, hot breath circling around him, ready to make a nice snack out of him. Illyana had shouted something to him.

"Vhat?" he asked, turning around just in time to grab hold of her sword, glinting through the air and coming straight at him. He gratefully took it and sliced blindly through the air until he felt a resistance and then saw a shadow appear on the ground, black, inky blood falling onto his hands. He breathed heavily, sitting in his place. She had almost killed him! That sword was like, this close to his face!

"Let's go!" urged Scott. Kurt opened his mouth to protest, but thought twice and willingly joined the others.

"So…" began Bobby slowly, "How are we supposed to get in there?" He pointed up at the cyclopean castle that stood before them. There was no doubt that it would be exploding at the seams with all sorts of demon guards.

"Ok, if we split into two, no three teams then team A consisting- began Scott

The eldritch armor of the Ancient Ones began to materialize upon Illyana's pale flesh and the soulsword appeared in her cupped hands. She stepped forth and swung through the solid rock. "Like this."

"Or we could do that…"


	35. Chapter 35

Claudine squared up to him-her father. She touched the cords of his memory.

"You are getting stronger."

"And you are getting weaker. Do you think that I do not know of your affair with the human female—Livingstone."

He narrowed his equally red eyes, "Very clever, but you cannot distract me with your simple tricks."

"Thought I'd try it," she shrugged and thrust out her palm, causing the vials to fly back.

Sinister caught them as was expected.

"Sorry," she smirked, "I can be so clumsy sometimes."

Sinister chuckled and sent the glass shards hurling back at her. Claudine cursed as one of the shards escaped her force field, drawing blood from her cheek.

Claudine silently wondered for how long they would play this game of cat and mouse and more importantly; who was the cat and who was the mouse? She tried desperately to cut deep into his mind, yet he was much more experienced than she by at least a century or two. As she dodged his strikes and telepathic force she found herself thinking oddly enough, about Sinister's other experiments. She hadn't been the only one and took a silent sort of comfort in the fact. Had they felt the pain she had? Had they been scared to face their reflections in the mirror?

As soon as her mind became filled with these thoughts she knew that she had made a huge mistake. She cried out as a surge of telepathic energy sent her flying into the back wall. Her arm hung limply at her side, yet she felt the bone healing quite rapidly. She concentrated on the back table and took Sinister by surprise, knocking his feet out from under him from behind.

He began to laugh with amusement at his daughter's efforts to stop him. She had so much hope in his defeat, yet she knew in the back of her mind that she was no match for his power. He picked himself off the ground with his telekinesis and hovered above her, his cape flying out behind him.

His eyes gleamed red and he sent her through the wall into the next room. Claudine gasped for air and clutched at her ribcage. She felt the puncture wound in her lungs. Still on her knees, she crawled her way back into the lab, heaving to try and catch her breath.

She sucked in her breath and forced herself to her feet. She remembered that not only was her life in danger and everyone in the city, but also Laura's.


End file.
